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• I'm a contract developer and I think I'm about to get screwed [closed]

  - by kagaku

  I do contract development on the side. You could say that I'm a contract developer? Considering I've only ever had one client I'd say that's not exactly the truth - more like I took a side job and needed some extra cash. It started out as a "rebuild our website and we'll pay you $10k" type project. Once that was complete (a bit over schedule, but certainly not over budget), the company hired me on as a "long term support" contractor. The contract is to go from March of this year, expiring on December 31st of this year - 10 months. Over which a payment is to be paid on the 30th of each month for a set amount. I've been fulfilling my end of the contract on all points - doing server maintenence, application and database changes, doing huge rush changes and pretty much just going above and beyond. Currently I'm in the middle of development of an iPhone mobile application (PhoneGap based) which is nearing completion (probably 3-4 weeks from submission). It has not been all peaches and flowers though. Each and every month when my paycheck comes due, there always seems to be an issue of sorts. These issues did not occur during the initial project, only during the support contract. The actual contract states that my check should be mailed out on the 30th of the month. I have received my check on time approximately once (on time being about 2-3 days within the 30th). I've received my paycheck as late as the 15th of the next month - over two weeks late. I've put up with it because I need the paycheck. There have been promises and promises of "we'll send it out on time next time! I promise" - only to receive it just as late the next month. When I ask about payment they give me a vibe like "why are you only worried about money?" - unfortunately I don't have the luxury of not worrying about money. The last straw was with my August payment, which should have been mailed on August 30th. I received it on September 12th. The reason for the delay? "USPS is delaying it man! we sent it out on the 1st!" is the reason I got. When I finally got the check in the mail, the postage on the envelope was marked September 10th - the date it was run through the postage machine. I've been outright lied to, at this point. I carry on working, because again - I need a paycheck. I orchestrated the move of our application to a new server, developed a bunch of new changes and continued work on the iPhone app. All told I probably went over my hourly allotment (I'm paid for 40 hours a month, I probably put in at least 50). On Saturday, the 1st, I gave the main contact at the company (a company of 3, by the way - this is not some big corporation) a ring and filled him in on the status of my work for the past two weeks. Unusually I hadn't heard from him since the middle of September. His response was "oh... well, that is nice and uh.. good job. well, we've been talking within the company about things and we've certainly got some decisions ahead of us..." - not verbatim but you get the idea (I hope?). I got out of this conversation that the site is not doing very well (which it's not) and they're considering pulling the plug. Crap, this contract is going to end early - there goes Christmas! Fine, that's alright, no problem. I'll get paid for the last months work and call it a day. Unfortunately I still haven't gotten last months check, and I'm getting dicked around now. "Oh.. we had problems transferring funds, we'll try and mail it out tomorrow" and "I left a VM with the finance guy, but I can't get ahold of him". So I'm getting the feeling I'm not getting paid for all the work I put in for September. This is obviously breach of contract, and I am pissed. Thinking irrationally, I considered changing all their passwords and holding their stuff hostage. Before I think it through (by the way, I am NOT going to do this, realized it would probably get me in trouble), I go and try some passwords for our various accounts. Google Apps? Oh, I'm no longer administrator here. Godaddy? Whoops, invalid password. Disqus? Nope, invalid password here too. Google Adsense / Analytics? Invalid password. Dedicated server account manager? Invalid password. Now, I have the servers root password - I just built the box last week and haven't had a chance to send the guy the root password. Wasn't in a rush, I manage the server and they never touch it. Now all of a sudden all the passwords except this one are changed; the writing is on the wall - I am out. Here's the conundrum. I have the root password, they do not. If I give them this password all the leverage I have is gone, out the door and out of my hands. During this argument of why am I not getting paid the guy sends me an email saying "oh by the way, what's the root username and password to the server?". Considering he knows absolutely nothing, I gave him an "admin" account which really has almost no rights. I still have exclusive access to the server, I just don't know where to go. I can hold their data hostage, but I'm almost positive this is the wrong thing to do. I'd consider it blackmail, regardless of whether or not I have gotten paid yet. I can "break" something on the server and give them the whole "well, if you were paying me I could fix it!" spiel. This works from a "well he's not holding their stuff hostage" point of view, but what stops them from hiring some one else to just fix the issue at hand? For all I know the guys nephew is a "l33t hax0r" and can figure it out for free. I can give in, document as much as I can and take him to small claims court. This is breach of contract, I'm not getting paid. I have a case, right? ???? Does anyone have any experience in this? What can I do? What are my options? I'm broke, I can't afford a lawyer and I can barely afford not getting this paycheck. My wife doesn't work (I work two jobs so she doesn't have to work - we have a 1 year old) and is already looking at getting a part time job to cover the bills. Long term we'll be fine, but this has pissed me off beyond belief! Help me out, I'm about to get screwed.

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• non-static variable cannot be referenced from a static context (java)

  - by Greg

  I ask that you ignore all logic.. i was taught poorly at first and so i still dont understand everything about static crap and its killing me. My error is with every single variable that i declare then try to use later inside my methods... i get the non-static variable cannot~~ error I can simply put all the rough coding of my methods inside my cases, and it works but then i cannot use recursion... What i really need is someone to help on the syntax and point me on the right direction of how to have my methods recognize my variables at the top... like compareCount etc thanks public class MyProgram7 { public static void main (String[]args) throws IOException{ Scanner scan = new Scanner(System.in); int compareCount = 0; int low = 0; int high = 0; int mid = 0; int key = 0; Scanner temp; int[]list; String menu, outputString; int option = 1; boolean found = false; // Prompt the user to select an option menu = "\n\t1 Reads file" + "\n\t2 Finds a specific number in the list" + "\n\t3 Prints how many comparisons were needed" + "\n\t0 Quit\n\n\n"; System.out.println(menu); System.out.print("\tEnter your selection: "); option = scan.nextInt(); // Keep reading data until the user enters 0 while (option != 0) { switch (option) { case 1: readFile(); break; case 2: findKey(list,low,high,key); break; case 3: printCount(); break; default: outputString = "\nInvalid Selection\n"; System.out.println(outputString); break; }//end of switch System.out.println(menu); System.out.print("\tEnter your selection: "); option = scan.nextInt(); }//end of while }//end of main public static void readFile() { int i = 0; temp = new Scanner(new File("CS1302_Data7_2010.txt")); while(temp.hasNext()) { list[i]= temp.nextInt(); i++; }//end of while temp.close(); System.out.println("File Found..."); }//end of readFile() public static void findKey() { while(found!=true) { while(key < 100 || key > 999) { System.out.println("Please enter the number you would like to search for? ie 350: "); key = scan.nextInt(); }//end of inside while //base if (low <= high) { mid = ((low+high)/2); if (key == list[mid]) { found = true; compareCount++; }//end of inside if }//end of outside if else if (key < list[mid]) { compareCount++; high = mid-1; findKey(list,low,high,key); }//end of else if else { compareCount++; low = mid+1; findKey(list,low,high,key); }//end of else }//end of outside while }//end of findKey() public static void printCount() { System.out.println("Total number of comparisons is: " + compareCount); }//end of printCount }//end of class

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• SSL and mod_rewrite error

  - by wnoveno

  Hi, I have https on my site. Pages with rewritten URL in my site are inaccessible while direct urls (folders). here's the htaccess ## 2009-12-17 16:52 JGC [START] ## Enable http compression for this site <IfModule mod_deflate.c> SetOutputFilter DEFLATE ## Directive "DeflateCompressionLevel" not allowed in .htaccess, only valid in server config and virtual hosts # DeflateCompressionLevel 9 # file-types indicated will not be compressed SetEnvIfNoCase Request_URI \.(?:gif|jpe?g|png)$ no-gzip dont-vary SetEnvIfNoCase Request_URI \.(?:swf|flv|pdf)$ no-gzip dont-vary SetEnvIfNoCase Request_URI \.(?:exe|t?gz|zip|gz2|sit|rar)$ no-gzip dont-vary <IfModule mod_headers.c> Header append Vary User-Agent </IfModule> </IfModule> ## 2009-12-17 16:52 JGC [END] ## 2010-03-05 16:05 JGC [START] #<IfModule mod_alias.c> #RedirectMatch 301 ^(/)$ /online-casino-poker-register.html #RedirectMatch 301 ^(/en)$ /en/online-casino-poker-register.html #RedirectMatch 301 ^(/en/)$ /en/online-casino-poker-register.html #RedirectMatch 301 ^(/en\.html)$ /en/online-casino-poker-register.html #RedirectMatch 301 ^(/sc)$ /sc/online-casino-poker-register.html #RedirectMatch 301 ^(/sc/)$ /sc/online-casino-poker-register.html #RedirectMatch 301 ^(/sc\.html)$ /sc/online-casino-poker-register.html #RedirectMatch 301 ^(/ch)$ /ch/online-casino-poker-register.html #RedirectMatch 301 ^(/ch/)$ /ch/online-casino-poker-register.html #RedirectMatch 301 ^(/ch\.html)$ /ch/online-casino-poker-register.html #</IfModule> ## 2010-03-05 16:05 JGC [END] ## # @version $Id: htaccess.txt 10492 2008-07-02 06:38:28Z ircmaxell $ # @package Joomla # @copyright Copyright (C) 2005 - 2008 Open Source Matters. All rights reserved. # @license http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html GNU/GPL # Joomla! is Free Software ## ##################################################### # READ THIS COMPLETELY IF YOU CHOOSE TO USE THIS FILE # # The line just below this section: 'Options +FollowSymLinks' may cause problems # with some server configurations. It is required for use of mod_rewrite, but may already # be set by your server administrator in a way that dissallows changing it in # your .htaccess file. If using it causes your server to error out, comment it out (add # to # beginning of line), reload your site in your browser and test your sef url's. If they work, # it has been set by your server administrator and you do not need it set here. # ##################################################### ## Can be commented out if causes errors, see notes above. Options +FollowSymLinks # # mod_rewrite in use RewriteEngine On #RewriteLog "/var/www/html/dafa888/rewrite.log" #RewriteLogLevel 3 RewriteCond %{HTTP_COOKIE} !jfcookie\[lang\] [NC] RewriteCond %{HTTP:Accept-Language} ^zh-cn [NC] RewriteRule ^$ /sc/ [L,R=301] RewriteCond %{HTTP_COOKIE} !jfcookie\[lang\] [NC] RewriteCond %{HTTP:Accept-Language} ^zh-tw [NC] RewriteRule ^$ /ch/ [L,R=301] #RewriteCond %{HTTP_COOKIE} !jfcookie[lang] [NC] #RewriteCond %{HTTP_COOKIE} jfcookie\[lang\] [NC] #RewriteCond %{HTTP_COOKIE} jfcookie\[lang\]=([^;]+) [NC] #RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /%1/$1 [NC,QSA] ########## Begin - Rewrite rules to block out some common exploits ## If you experience problems on your site block out the operations listed below ## This attempts to block the most common type of exploit `attempts` to Joomla! # # Block out any script trying to set a mosConfig value through the URL RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} mosConfig_[a-zA-Z_]{1,21}(=|\%3D) [OR] # Block out any script trying to base64_encode crap to send via URL RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} base64_encode.*\(.*\) [OR] # Block out any script that includes a <script> tag in URL RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} (\<|%3C).*script.*(\>|%3E) [NC,OR] # Block out any script trying to set a PHP GLOBALS variable via URL RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} GLOBALS(=|\[|\%[0-9A-Z]{0,2}) [OR] # Block out any script trying to modify a _REQUEST variable via URL RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} _REQUEST(=|\[|\%[0-9A-Z]{0,2}) # Send all blocked request to homepage with 403 Forbidden error! RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php [F,L] # ########## End - Rewrite rules to block out some common exploits # Uncomment following line if your webserver's URL # is not directly related to physical file paths. # Update Your Joomla! Directory (just / for root) RewriteBase / #RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^(.*)$ [NC] #RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.%1/$1 [R=301] ########## Begin - Joomla! core SEF Section # RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/index.php RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} (/|\.php|\.html|\.htm|\.feed|\.pdf|\.raw|/[^.]*)$ [NC] RewriteRule (.*) index.php RewriteRule .* - [E=HTTP_AUTHORIZATION:%{HTTP:Authorization},L] # ########## End - Joomla! core SEF Section

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• Can someone code review my small SDL app? Want to make sure I didn't make any beginner mistakes

  - by SDLFunTimes

  In an effort to teach myself the SDL library (hence my stack overflow handle :) ) I wanted to try my hand at a side-scroller. My code is complete but I want some feedback (mostly because I have an atrocious amount of if and else statements for what seems like some simple logic). My "program" is a c++ side-scroller where you move a single sprite across the screen. No jumping, bad guys, guns, scores, levels or anything. I wanted to use this as a base to build up upon. So I figured if my base is wrong I could end up with some pretty bad future apps. It's also multi-threaded. Next up on this I would like to make the person sprite animated (so it looks like he's walking rather than sliding) as well as make the person go faster when the arrow buttons are held down longer). The code is kind of long but here's my main method. There's a link at the bottom for the whole program: #include <iostream> #include "SDL.h" #include "game.hpp" using std::cout; using std::endl; const int SCREENW = 200; const int SCREENH = 200; const int BPP = 32; const int FPS = 24; int event_loop(void* stuff); int display_loop(void* stuff); int main(int argc, char** argv) { SDL_Init(SDL_INIT_EVERYTHING | SDL_INIT_EVENTTHREAD); SDL_Thread* events_thurd; SDL_Thread* display_thurd; SDL_Surface* screen = SDL_SetVideoMode(SCREENW, SCREENH, BPP, SDL_SWSURFACE); SDL_EnableKeyRepeat(SDL_DEFAULT_REPEAT_DELAY, SDL_DEFAULT_REPEAT_INTERVAL); SDL_Event event; Game* thug_aim = new Game(&event, screen, SCREENW, SCREENH, BPP); events_thurd = SDL_CreateThread(event_loop, (void*)thug_aim); display_thurd = SDL_CreateThread(display_loop, (void*)thug_aim); SDL_WaitThread(events_thurd, NULL); SDL_KillThread(display_thurd); delete thug_aim; return 0; } int event_loop(void* stuff) { Game* gamez = (Game*)stuff; SDL_Event* event = gamez->get_event(); while(1) { while(SDL_PollEvent(event)) { if(event->type == SDL_QUIT) { return 0; } else if(event->type == SDL_KEYDOWN) { if(event->key.keysym.sym == SDLK_LEFT || event->key.keysym.sym == SDLK_RIGHT) { gamez->move(event->key.keysym.sym); } } else if(event->type == SDL_KEYUP) { if(event->key.keysym.sym == SDLK_LEFT || event->key.keysym.sym == SDLK_RIGHT) { gamez->stop_move(event->key.keysym.sym); } } else { //not an event that concerns this game } } } } int display_loop(void* stuff) { Game* gamez = (Game*)stuff; double period = 1 / FPS * 1000; Uint32 milli_period = (Uint32)period; //get some of the attributes from gamez SDL_Rect* background_rect = gamez->get_background_rect(); SDL_Rect* person_rect = gamez->get_person_rect(); SDL_Surface* screen = gamez->get_screen(); SDL_Surface* background = gamez->get_background(); SDL_Surface* person = gamez->get_person(); Uint32 start, end; int sleep; while(1) { start = SDL_GetTicks(); //blit background SDL_BlitSurface(background, background_rect, screen, NULL); //blit person SDL_BlitSurface(person, NULL, screen, person_rect); end = SDL_GetTicks(); sleep = milli_period - (end - start); if(sleep < 0) { sleep = 0; } SDL_Delay((Uint32)sleep); if(SDL_Flip(gamez->get_screen()) != 0) { cout << "error drawing to screen: " << SDL_GetError() << endl; } } } Here's the link to the .zip file of all my code (please ignore some of the variable names ;-) ): Anyway can you guys take a look and tell me what you think? url edit: holy crap I didn't know 2shared was such a shitty site. Looking for a better uploader than that or rapidshare / mediafire.

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• "Attach or Add an entity that is not new...loaded from another DataContext. This is not supported."

  - by sah302

  Similar error as other questions, but not quite the same, I am not trying to attach anything. What I am trying to do is insert a new row into a linking table, specifically UserAccomplishment. Relations are set in LINQ to User and Accomplishment Tables. I have a generic insert function: Public Function insertRow(ByVal entity As ImplementationType) As Boolean If entity IsNot Nothing Then Dim lcfdatacontext As New LCFDataContext() Try lcfdatacontext.GetTable(Of ImplementationType)().InsertOnSubmit(entity) lcfdatacontext.SubmitChanges() lcfdatacontext.Dispose() Return True Catch ex As Exception Return False End Try Else Return False End If End Function If you try and give UserAccomplishment the two appropriate objects this will naturally crap out if either the User or Accomplishment already exist. It only works when both user and accomplishment don't exist. I expected this behavior. What does work is simply giving the userAccomplishment object a user.id and accomplishment.id and populating the rest of the fields. This works but is kind of awkward to use in my app, it would be much easier to simply pass in both objects and have it work out what already exists and what doesn't. Okay so I made the following (please ignore the fact that this is horribly inefficient because I know it is): Public Class UserAccomplishmentDao Inherits EntityDao(Of UserAccomplishment) Public Function insertLinkerObjectRow(ByVal userAccomplishment As UserAccomplishment) Dim insertSuccess As Boolean = False If Not userAccomplishment Is Nothing Then Dim userDao As New UserDao() Dim accomplishmentDao As New AccomplishmentDao() Dim user As New User() Dim accomplishment As New Accomplishment() 'see if either object already exists in db' user = userDao.getOneByValueOfProperty("Id", userAccomplishment.User.Id) accomplishment = accomplishmentDao.getOneByValueOfProperty("Id", userAccomplishment.Accomplishment.Id) If user Is Nothing And accomplishment Is Nothing Then 'neither the user or the accomplishment exist, both are new so insert them both, typical insert' insertSuccess = Me.insertRow(userAccomplishment) ElseIf user Is Nothing And Not accomplishment Is Nothing Then 'user is new, accomplishment is not new, so just insert the user, and the relation in userAccomplishment' Dim userWithExistingAccomplishment As New UserAccomplishment(userAccomplishment.User, userAccomplishment.Accomplishment.Id, userAccomplishment.LastUpdatedBy) insertSuccess = Me.insertRow(userWithExistingAccomplishment) ElseIf Not user Is Nothing And accomplishment Is Nothing Then 'user is not new, accomplishment is new, so just insert the accomplishment, and the relation in userAccomplishment' Dim existingUserWithAccomplishment As New UserAccomplishment(userAccomplishment.UserId, userAccomplishment.Accomplishment, userAccomplishment.LastUpdatedBy) insertSuccess = Me.insertRow(existingUserWithAccomplishment) Else 'both are not new, just add the relation' Dim userAccomplishmentBothExist As New UserAccomplishment(userAccomplishment.User.Id, userAccomplishment.Accomplishment.Id, userAccomplishment.LastUpdatedBy) insertSuccess = Me.insertRow(userAccomplishmentBothExist) End If End If Return insertSuccess End Function End Class Alright, here I basically check if the supplied user and accomplishment already exists in the db, and if so call an appropriate constructor that will leave whatever already exists empty, but supply the rest of the information so the insert can succeed. However, upon trying an insert: Dim result As Boolean = Me.userAccomplishmentDao.insertLinkerObjectRow(userAccomplishment) In which the user already exists, but the accomplishment does not (the 99% typical scenario) I get the error: "An attempt has been made to Attach or Add an entity that is not new, perhaps having been loaded from another DataContext. This is not supported." I have debugged this multiple times now and am not sure why this is occuring, if either User or Accomplishment exist, I am not including it in the final object to try to insert. So nothing appears to be attempted to be added. Even in debug, upon insert, the object was set to empty. So the accomplishment is new and the user is empty. 1) Why is it still saying that and how can I fix it ..using my current structure 2) Pre-emptive 'use repository pattern answers' - I know this way kind of sucks in general and I should be using the repository pattern. However, I can't use that in the current project because I don't have time to refactor that due to my non existence knowledge of it and time constraints. The usage of the app is going to so small that the inefficient use of datacontext's and what have you won't matter so much. I can refactor it once it's up and running, but for now I just need to 'push through' with my current structure. Edit: I also just tested this when having both already exists, and only insert each object's IDs into the table, that works. So I guess I could manually insert whichever object doesn't exist as a single insert, then put the ids only into the linking table, but I still don't know why when one object exists, and I make it empty, it doens't work.

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• Recursively created linked lists with a class, C++

  - by Jon Brant

  I'm using C++ to recursively make a hexagonal grid (using a multiply linked list style). I've got it set up to create neighboring tiles easily, but because I'm doing it recursively, I can only really create all 6 neighbors for a given tile. Obviously, this is causing duplicate tiles to be created and I'm trying to get rid of them in some way. Because I'm using a class, checking for null pointers doesn't seem to work. It's either failing to convert from my Tile class to and int, or somehow converting it but not doing it properly. I'm explicitly setting all pointers to NULL upon creation, and when I check to see if it still is, it says it's not even though I never touched it since initialization. Is there a specific way I'm supposed to do this? I can't even traverse the grid without NULLs of some kind Here's some of my relevant code. Yes, I know it's embarassing. Tile class header: class Tile { public: Tile(void); Tile(char *Filename); ~Tile(void); void show(void); bool LoadGLTextures(); void makeDisplayList(); void BindTexture(); void setFilename(char *newName); char Filename[100]; GLuint texture[2]; GLuint displayList; Tile *neighbor[6]; float xPos, yPos,zPos; };` Tile Initialization: Tile::Tile(void) { xPos=0.0f; yPos=0.0f; zPos=0.0f; glEnable(GL_DEPTH_TEST); strcpy(Filename, strcpy(Filename, "Data/BlueTile.bmp")); if(!BuildTexture(Filename, texture[0]))MessageBox(NULL,"Texture failed to load!","Crap!",MB_OK|MB_ICONASTERISK); for(int x=0;x<6;x++) { neighbor[x]=NULL; } } Creation of neighboring tiles: void MakeNeighbors(Tile *InputTile, int stacks) { for(int x=0;x<6;x++) { InputTile->neighbor[x]=new Tile();InputTile->neighbor[x]->xPos=0.0f;InputTile->neighbor[x]->yPos=0.0f;InputTile->zPos=float(stacks); } if(stacks) { for(int x=0;x<6;x++)MakeNeighbors(InputTile->neighbor[x],stacks-1); } } And finally, traversing the grid: void TraverseGrid(Tile *inputTile) { Tile *temp; for(int x=0;x<6;x++) if(inputTile->neighbor[x]) { temp=inputTile->neighbor[x]; temp->xPos=0.0f; TraverseGrid(temp); //MessageBox(NULL,"Not Null!","SHUTDOWN ERROR",MB_OK | MB_ICONINFORMATION); } } The key line is "if(inputTile-neighbor[x])" and whether I make it "if(inputTile-neighbor[x]==NULL)" or whatever I do, it just isn't handling it properly. Oh and I'm also aware that I haven't set up the list fully. It's only one direction now.

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• Wordpress blog with Joomla?

  - by user427902

  Hi, I had this Wordpress installation which was installed in a subfolder (not root). Like http: //server/blog/. Now, I installed Joomla on the root (http: //server/). Everything seems to be working fine with the Joomla part. However, the blog part is messed up. If I try to browse the homepage of my blog which is http: //server/blog/ it works like a charm. But while trying to view individual blog pages like say, http: //server/blog/some_category/some_post I get a Joomla 404 page. So, I was wondering if it was possible to use both Wordpress and Joomla in the same server in the setup I am trying to. Let me clarify that I am NOT looking to integrate user login and other such things. I just want the blog to be functional under a subfolder while I run the Joomla site in the root. So, what is the correct way to go about it. Can this be solved by any .config edits or something else? Edit: Here's the .htaccess for Joomla ... (I can't find any .htaccess for Wp though, still looking for it.) ## # @version $Id: htaccess.txt 14401 2010-01-26 14:10:00Z louis $ # @package Joomla # @copyright Copyright (C) 2005 - 2010 Open Source Matters. All rights reserved. # @license http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html GNU/GPL # Joomla! is Free Software ## ##################################################### # READ THIS COMPLETELY IF YOU CHOOSE TO USE THIS FILE # # The line just below this section: 'Options +FollowSymLinks' may cause problems # with some server configurations. It is required for use of mod_rewrite, but may already # be set by your server administrator in a way that dissallows changing it in # your .htaccess file. If using it causes your server to error out, comment it out (add # to # beginning of line), reload your site in your browser and test your sef url's. If they work, # it has been set by your server administrator and you do not need it set here. # ##################################################### ## Can be commented out if causes errors, see notes above. Options +FollowSymLinks # # mod_rewrite in use RewriteEngine On ########## Begin - Rewrite rules to block out some common exploits ## If you experience problems on your site block out the operations listed below ## This attempts to block the most common type of exploit `attempts` to Joomla! # ## Deny access to extension xml files (uncomment out to activate) #<Files ~ "\.xml$"> #Order allow,deny #Deny from all #Satisfy all #</Files> ## End of deny access to extension xml files RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} mosConfig_[a-zA-Z_]{1,21}(=|\%3D) [OR] # Block out any script trying to base64_encode crap to send via URL RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} base64_encode.*\(.*\) [OR] # Block out any script that includes a <script> tag in URL RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} (\<|%3C).*script.*(\>|%3E) [NC,OR] # Block out any script trying to set a PHP GLOBALS variable via URL RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} GLOBALS(=|\[|\%[0-9A-Z]{0,2}) [OR] # Block out any script trying to modify a _REQUEST variable via URL RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} _REQUEST(=|\[|\%[0-9A-Z]{0,2}) # Send all blocked request to homepage with 403 Forbidden error! RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php [F,L] # ########## End - Rewrite rules to block out some common exploits # Uncomment following line if your webserver's URL # is not directly related to physical file paths. # Update Your Joomla! Directory (just / for root) # RewriteBase / ########## Begin - Joomla! core SEF Section # RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/index.php RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} (/|\.php|\.html|\.htm|\.feed|\.pdf|\.raw|/[^.]*)$ [NC] RewriteRule (.*) index.php RewriteRule .* - [E=HTTP_AUTHORIZATION:%{HTTP:Authorization},L] # ########## End - Joomla! core SEF Section

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• How can I make the storage of C++ lambda objects more efficient?

  - by Peter Ruderman

  I've been thinking about storing C++ lambda's lately. The standard advice you see on the Internet is to store the lambda in a std::function object. However, none of this advice ever considers the storage implications. It occurred to me that there must be some seriously black voodoo going on behind the scenes to make this work. Consider the following class that stores an integer value: class Simple { public: Simple( int value ) { puts( "Constructing simple!" ); this->value = value; } Simple( const Simple& rhs ) { puts( "Copying simple!" ); this->value = rhs.value; } Simple( Simple&& rhs ) { puts( "Moving simple!" ); this->value = rhs.value; } ~Simple() { puts( "Destroying simple!" ); } int Get() const { return this->value; } private: int value; }; Now, consider this simple program: int main() { Simple test( 5 ); std::function<int ()> f = [test] () { return test.Get(); }; printf( "%d\n", f() ); } This is the output I would hope to see from this program: Constructing simple! Copying simple! Moving simple! Destroying simple! 5 Destroying simple! Destroying simple! First, we create the value test. We create a local copy on the stack for the temporary lambda object. We then move the temporary lambda object into memory allocated by std::function. We destroy the temporary lambda. We print our output. We destroy the std::function. And finally, we destroy the test object. Needless to say, this is not what I see. When I compile this on Visual C++ 2010 (release or debug mode), I get this output: Constructing simple! Copying simple! Copying simple! Copying simple! Copying simple! Destroying simple! Destroying simple! Destroying simple! 5 Destroying simple! Destroying simple! Holy crap that's inefficient! Not only did the compiler fail to use my move constructor, but it generated and destroyed two apparently superfluous copies of the lambda during the assignment. So, here finally are the questions: (1) Is all this copying really necessary? (2) Is there some way to coerce the compiler into generating better code? Thanks for reading!

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• How to make MySQL utilize available system resources, or find "the real problem"?

  - by anonymous coward

  This is a MySQL 5.0.26 server, running on SuSE Enterprise 10. This may be a Serverfault question. The web user interface that uses these particular queries (below) is showing sometimes 30+, even up to 120+ seconds at the worst, to generate the pages involved. On development, when the queries are run alone, they take up to 20 seconds on the first run (with no query cache enabled) but anywhere from 2 to 7 seconds after that - I assume because the tables and indexes involved have been placed into ram. From what I can tell, the longest load times are caused by Read/Update Locking. These are MyISAM tables. So it looks like a long update comes in, followed by a couple 7 second queries, and they're just adding up. And I'm fine with that explanation. What I'm not fine with is that MySQL doesn't appear to be utilizing the hardware it's on, and while the bottleneck seems to be the database, I can't understand why. I would say "throw more hardware at it", but we did and it doesn't appear to have changed the situation. Viewing a 'top' during the slowest times never shows much cpu or memory utilization by mysqld, as if the server is having no trouble at all - but then, why are the queries taking so long? How can I make MySQL use the crap out of this hardware, or find out what I'm doing wrong? Extra Details: On the "Memory Health" tab in the MySQL Administrator (for Windows), the Key Buffer is less than 1/8th used - so all the indexes should be in RAM. I can provide a screen shot of any graphs that might help. So desperate to fix this issue. Suffice it to say, there is legacy code "generating" these queries, and they're pretty much stuck the way they are. I have tried every combination of Indexes on the tables involved, but any suggestions are welcome. Here's the current Create Table statement from development (the 'experimental' key I have added, seems to help a little, for the example query only): CREATE TABLE `registration_task` ( `id` varchar(36) NOT NULL default '', `date_entered` datetime NOT NULL default '0000-00-00 00:00:00', `date_modified` datetime NOT NULL default '0000-00-00 00:00:00', `assigned_user_id` varchar(36) default NULL, `modified_user_id` varchar(36) default NULL, `created_by` varchar(36) default NULL, `name` varchar(80) NOT NULL default '', `status` varchar(255) default NULL, `date_due` date default NULL, `time_due` time default NULL, `date_start` date default NULL, `time_start` time default NULL, `parent_id` varchar(36) NOT NULL default '', `priority` varchar(255) NOT NULL default '9', `description` text, `order_number` int(11) default '1', `task_number` int(11) default NULL, `depends_on_id` varchar(36) default NULL, `milestone_flag` varchar(255) default NULL, `estimated_effort` int(11) default NULL, `actual_effort` int(11) default NULL, `utilization` int(11) default '100', `percent_complete` int(11) default '0', `deleted` tinyint(1) NOT NULL default '0', `wf_task_id` varchar(36) default '0', `reg_field` varchar(8) default '', `date_offset` int(11) default '0', `date_source` varchar(10) default '', `date_completed` date default '0000-00-00', `completed_id` varchar(36) default NULL, `original_name` varchar(80) default NULL, PRIMARY KEY (`id`), KEY `idx_reg_task_p` (`deleted`,`parent_id`), KEY `By_Assignee` (`assigned_user_id`,`deleted`), KEY `status_assignee` (`status`,`deleted`), KEY `experimental` (`deleted`,`status`,`assigned_user_id`,`parent_id`,`date_due`) ) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1 And one of the ridiculous queries in question: SELECT users.user_name assigned_user_name, registration.FIELD001 parent_name, registration_task.status status, registration_task.date_modified date_modified, registration_task.date_due date_due, registration.FIELD240 assigned_wf, if(LENGTH(registration_task.description)>0,1,0) has_description, registration_task.* FROM registration_task LEFT JOIN users ON registration_task.assigned_user_id=users.id LEFT JOIN registration ON registration_task.parent_id=registration.id where (registration_task.status != 'Completed' AND registration.FIELD001 LIKE '%' AND registration_task.name LIKE '%' AND registration.FIELD060 LIKE 'GN001472%') AND registration_task.deleted=0 ORDER BY date_due asc LIMIT 0,20; my.cnf - '[mysqld]' section. [mysqld] port = 3306 socket = /var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock skip-locking key_buffer = 384M max_allowed_packet = 100M table_cache = 2048 sort_buffer_size = 2M net_buffer_length = 100M read_buffer_size = 2M read_rnd_buffer_size = 160M myisam_sort_buffer_size = 128M query_cache_size = 16M query_cache_limit = 1M EXPLAIN above query, without additional index: +----+-------------+-------------------+--------+--------------------------------+----------------+---------+------------------------------------------------+---------+-----------------------------+ | id | select_type | table | type | possible_keys | key | key_len | ref | rows | Extra | +----+-------------+-------------------+--------+--------------------------------+----------------+---------+------------------------------------------------+---------+-----------------------------+ | 1 | SIMPLE | registration_task | ref | idx_reg_task_p,status_assignee | idx_reg_task_p | 1 | const | 1067354 | Using where; Using filesort | | 1 | SIMPLE | registration | eq_ref | PRIMARY,gbl | PRIMARY | 8 | sugarcrm401.registration_task.parent_id | 1 | Using where | | 1 | SIMPLE | users | ref | PRIMARY | PRIMARY | 38 | sugarcrm401.registration_task.assigned_user_id | 1 | | +----+-------------+-------------------+--------+--------------------------------+----------------+---------+------------------------------------------------+---------+-----------------------------+ EXPLAIN above query, with 'experimental' index: +----+-------------+-------------------+--------+-----------------------------------------------------------+------------------+---------+------------------------------------------------+--------+-----------------------------+ | id | select_type | table | type | possible_keys | key | key_len | ref | rows | Extra | +----+-------------+-------------------+--------+-----------------------------------------------------------+------------------+---------+------------------------------------------------+--------+-----------------------------+ | 1 | SIMPLE | registration_task | range | idx_reg_task_p,status_assignee,NewIndex1,tcg_experimental | tcg_experimental | 259 | NULL | 103345 | Using where; Using filesort | | 1 | SIMPLE | registration | eq_ref | PRIMARY,gbl | PRIMARY | 8 | sugarcrm401.registration_task.parent_id | 1 | Using where | | 1 | SIMPLE | users | ref | PRIMARY | PRIMARY | 38 | sugarcrm401.registration_task.assigned_user_id | 1 | | +----+-------------+-------------------+--------+-----------------------------------------------------------+------------------+---------+------------------------------------------------+--------+-----------------------------+

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• if statement to check available elements

  - by nicmare

  Hi there, i allways found an answer here just be reading the threads but now its time for my very first thread because i was unable to find related questions: this is my target code: <li> <span class="panel"> <a href="…" class="image" rel="group"> <img title="…" src="…" alt="…" width="128" height="96" /> </a> <span class="sizes"> <span class="button"> <a href="#" class="size1" rel="…" title="1">9x13</a> </span> <span class="button"> <a href="#" class="size2" rel="…" title="3">10x15</a> </span> <span class="button"> <a href="#" class="size3" rel="…" title="6">20x30</a> </span> </span> </span> <a href="…" class="image" rel="group"> <span class="added"></span> <img title="…" src="…" alt="…" width="128" height="96" class="thumbnail" /> </a> </li> i add two "span" elements through jquery: $('.sizes a').click( function (e) { e.preventDefault(); $(this).after("<span class='checked'></span><span class='remove'></span>"); } ); the maximum amount of those s are 3 times in a wrapped div. so i am trying to do is the following: $(".remove").live('click', function(){ $(this).hide(); $(this).prev().hide(); // hide checked span if ($(this).parent().parent().children().children().each().hasClass('checked')) { $(this).parent().parent().parent().next().children(".added").hide(); } } ); of course my if statement is crap. i try it in my own words: if there are more than one span(class=remove) in span(class=panel) then nothing should happen. but if there is just one span(class=remove) left in span(class=panel) THEN should be hidden how do i achieve this? there is an online demonstration of this: http://bit.ly/972be4 as you can see, every time when i hit a button below an image, the image gets marked by a label. and i want to hide this label (class=added) when no button is selected Thank you very much! best wishes from germany

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• Day 2 - Game Design Documentation

  - by dapostolov

  So yesterday I didn't cut any code for my game but I was able to do a tiny bit of research on the XNA Game Development Technology and the communities out there and do you know what? I feel I'm a bit closer to my goal. The bad news is today I didn't cut code either. However, not all is lost because I wanted to get my ideas on paper and today I just did that.  Today, I began to jot down notes about the game and how I felt the visual elements would interact with each other. Unlike my workplace, my personal level of documentation is nothing more than a task list or a mind map of my ideas; it helps me streamline my solutions quiet effectively and circumvent the long process of articulating each thought to the n-th degree. I truly dislike documentation (because I have an extremely hard time articulating my thought and solutions); however, because I tend to do a really good job with documentation I tend to get stuck writing the buggers. But as a generalist remark: 'No Developer likes documentation.' For now let's stick with my basic notes and call this post a living document. Here are my notes, fresh, from after watching the new first episode of Merlin second season! Actually, a quick recommendation to anyone who is reading this (if anyone is): I truly recommend you envelope yourself in the medium or task you're trying to tackle. Be one with moment and feel it! For instance: Are you writing a fantasy script / game? What would the music of the genre sound like? For me the Conan the Barbarian soundtrack by Basil Poledouris is frackin awesome. There are many other good CD's out there, which I listen to (some who even use medival instruments, but Conan I keep returning to. It's a creative trigger for me. Ask yourself what would the imagery look like? Time to surf google for artist renditions of fantasy! What would the game feel like? Start playing some of your favorite games that inspire you, be wary though, have some self control and don't let it absorb your time. Anyhow, onto the documentation... Screens, Scenes, and Sprites. Oh My! (groan...) The first thing that came to mind were the screens, I thought the following would suffice: Menu Screen Character Customisation Screen Loading Screen? Battle Ground The Menu Screen Ok. So, the thought here is when the game loads a huge title is displayed: Wizard Wars. The player is prompted with 3 menu items: 1 Player Game, 2 Player Game, and Exit. Since I'm targetting the PC platform, as a non-networked game to start, I picture myself running my mouse over each menu option and the visual element of the menu item changes, along with a sound to indicate that I am over a curent menu item. And as I move my mouse away, it changes back, and possibly an exit mouse sound. Maybe on the screen somewhere is a brazier alit with a magical tome open right beside it, OR, maybe the tome is the menu! I hear the menu music as mellow, not obtrusive or piercing. On a menu item select, a confirmation sound bellows to indicate the players selection. The Esc key will always return me to the previous screens or desktop. The menu screen must feel...dark, like a really important ritual is about to happen and thus the music should build up. 1 Player Game - > Customize Character(s) 2 Player Game - > Customize Character(s) Exit - > Back to Windows Notes: So the first thing I pick up here are a couple things: First and foremost, my artistic abilities suck crap, so I may have to hire an artist (now that i've said that, lets get techy) graphical objects will be positioned within a scene on each screen / window. Menu items will be represented grapically, possibly animated, and have sound / animation effects triggered by user input or a time line. I have an animated scene involving a brazier or fire on a stick IF I was to move this game to the xbox, I'd have to track which menu item is currently selected (unless I do a mouse pointer type thing.) WindowObject has a scene A Scene has many GameObjects GameObject has a position graphic or animation MenuObject is a GameObject which has a mouse in, mouse out, and click event which either does something graphically (animation), does something with sound, or moves to another screen.  Character Customisation Screen With either the 1 or 2 player option selected, both selections will come to this screen; a wizard requires a name, powers, and vestements of course! Player one will configure his character first and then player two. I considered a split screen for PC but to have two people fighting over a keyboard would probably suck. For XBox, a split screen could work; maybe when I get into the networking portion (phase 2 blog?) of this game I will remove the 2 player option for PC and provide only multiplayer and I will leave 2 player for xbox...hmm... Anyhow...I picture the creation process as follows: Name: (textbox / keyboard entry) - for xbox, this would have to be different. Robe Color: (color box, or something) Stats: Speed, Oomph, and Health. (as sliders) 1 as minimum and 10 as maximum. Ok, Back, and Cancel buttons / options. Each stat has a benefit which are listed below. The idea is the player decides if he wants his wizard to run fast, be a tank and ... hit with a purse.Regardless, the player will have a pool of 12 points to use. Ideally, A balanced wizard will have 5 in each attribute. Spells? The only spell of choice is a ball of fire which comes without question. The music and screen should still feel like a ritual. The Character Speed Basically, how fast your character moves and casts. Oomph (Best Monster Truck Voice): PURE POWAH!!! The damage output of your fireball. Health How much damage you can take. Notes: I realise the game dynamics may sound uninteresting at the moment; but I think after a couple releases, we could have some other grand ideas such as: saved profiles, gold to upgrade arsenal of spells, talents, etc...but for now...a vanilla fireball thrower mage will suffice for this experiment. OK. So... a MenuObject  may need to be loosely coupled to allow future items such as networking? may be a button? a CharacterObject has a name speed oomph health and a funky robe color. cap on the three stats (1-10) an arsenal of 1 spell (possibly could expand this) The Loading Screen As is. The Battleground Screen For now, I'm keeping the screen as max resolution for the PC. The screen isn't going to move or even be a split screen. I'm not aiming high here because I want to see what level of change is involved when new features / concepts are added to game content. I'm interested to find out if we could apply techniques such as MVC or MVVM to this type of development or is it too tightly coupled? This reminds me when when my best friend and I were brainstorming our game idea (this is going back a while...1994, 6?) and he cringed at the thought of bringing business technology into games, especially when I suggested a database to store character information and COM / DCOM as the medium, but it seems I wasn't far off (reflecting); just like his implementation of a xml "config file" for dynamic direct-x menus back before .net in 1999...anyhow...i digress... The Battle One screen, two characters lobing balls of fire at each other...It doesn't get better than that. Every so often a scroll appears...and the fireballs bounce off walls, or the wizard has rapid fire, or even scrolls of healing! The scroll options are endless. Two bars at the top, each the color of the wizard (with their name beside the bar) indicate how much health they have. Possibly the appearance of the scrolls means the battle is taking too long? I'm thinking 1 player controls: up, down, left, right and space to fire the button. Or even possibly, mouse click and shift - mouse button to fire a spell in the direction they are facing. Two player controls: a, s, d, f and space AND arrows (up, down, left, right) and Del key or Crtl. The game ends when a player has 0 health and a dialog box appears asking for a rematch / reconfigure / exit. Health goes down when a fireball (friendly or not), connects with a wizard. When a wizard connects with a scroll, a countdown clock / icon appears near the health bar and the wizard begins to glow. For the most part, a wizard can have only scroll 1 effect on him at a time. Notes: Ok, there's alot to cover here. a CharacterObject is a GameObject it travels at a set velocity it travels in a direction it has sounds (walking, running, casting, impact, dying, laughing, whistling, other?) it has animations (walking, running, casting, impact, dying, laughing, idle, other?) it has a lifespan (determined by health) it is alive or dead it has a position a ScrollObject is a GameObject it carries a transferance of points "damage" (or healing, bad scroll effect?) (determinde by caster) it carries a transferance of "other" it is stationary it has a sound on impact it has a stationary animation it has an impact animation / or transfers an impact animation it has a fade animation? it has a lifespan (determined by game) it is alive or dead it has a position a WallObject is a GameObject it has a sound on fireball impact? it is a still image / stationary it has an impact animation / or transfers an impact animation it is dead it has a position A FireBall is a GameObject it carries a transferance of poinst "damage" (or healing, bad scroll effect?) (determinde by caster) it travels at a set velocity it travels in a direction it has a sound it has a travel animation it has an impact animation / or transfers an impact animation it has a fade animation? it has a lifespan (determined by caster) it is alive or dead it has a position As I look at this, I can see some common attributes in each object that I can carry up to the GameObject. I think I'm going to end the documentation here, it's taken me a bit of time to type this all out, tomorrow. I'll load up my IDE and my paint studio to get some good old fashioned cowboy hacking going!   D.

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• Creating a Dynamic DataRow for easier DataRow Syntax

  - by Rick Strahl

  I've been thrown back into an older project that uses DataSets and DataRows as their entity storage model. I have several applications internally that I still maintain that run just fine (and I sometimes wonder if this wasn't easier than all this ORM crap we deal with with 'newer' improved technology today - but I disgress) but use this older code. For the most part DataSets/DataTables/DataRows are abstracted away in a pseudo entity model, but in some situations like queries DataTables and DataRows are still surfaced to the business layer. Here's an example. Here's a business object method that runs dynamic query and the code ends up looping over the result set using the ugly DataRow Array syntax:public int UpdateAllSafeTitles() { int result = this.Execute("select pk, title, safetitle from " + Tablename + " where EntryType=1", "TPks"); if (result < 0) return result; result = 0; foreach (DataRow row in this.DataSet.Tables["TPks"].Rows) { string title = row["title"] as string; string safeTitle = row["safeTitle"] as string; int pk = (int)row["pk"]; string newSafeTitle = this.GetSafeTitle(title); if (newSafeTitle != safeTitle) { this.ExecuteNonQuery("update " + this.Tablename + " set safeTitle=@safeTitle where pk=@pk", this.CreateParameter("@safeTitle",newSafeTitle), this.CreateParameter("@pk",pk) ); result++; } } return result; } The problem with looping over DataRow objecs is two fold: The array syntax is tedious to type and not real clear to look at, and explicit casting is required in order to do anything useful with the values. I've highlighted the place where this matters. Using the DynamicDataRow class I'll show in a minute this code can be changed to look like this:public int UpdateAllSafeTitles() { int result = this.Execute("select pk, title, safetitle from " + Tablename + " where EntryType=1", "TPks"); if (result < 0) return result; result = 0; foreach (DataRow row in this.DataSet.Tables["TPks"].Rows) { dynamic entry = new DynamicDataRow(row); string newSafeTitle = this.GetSafeTitle(entry.title); if (newSafeTitle != entry.safeTitle) { this.ExecuteNonQuery("update " + this.Tablename + " set safeTitle=@safeTitle where pk=@pk", this.CreateParameter("@safeTitle",newSafeTitle), this.CreateParameter("@pk",entry.pk) ); result++; } } return result; } The code looks much a bit more natural and describes what's happening a little nicer as well. Well, using the new dynamic features in .NET it's actually quite easy to implement the DynamicDataRow class. Creating your own custom Dynamic Objects .NET 4.0 introduced the Dynamic Language Runtime (DLR) and opened up a whole bunch of new capabilities for .NET applications. The dynamic type is an easy way to avoid Reflection and directly access members of 'dynamic' or 'late bound' objects at runtime. There's a lot of very subtle but extremely useful stuff that dynamic does (especially for COM Interop scenearios) but in its simplest form it often allows you to do away with manual Reflection at runtime. In addition you can create DynamicObject implementations that can perform  custom interception of member accesses and so allow you to provide more natural access to more complex or awkward data structures like the DataRow that I use as an example here. Bascially you can subclass DynamicObject and then implement a few methods (TryGetMember, TrySetMember, TryInvokeMember) to provide the ability to return dynamic results from just about any data structure using simple property/method access. In the code above, I created a custom DynamicDataRow class which inherits from DynamicObject and implements only TryGetMember and TrySetMember. Here's what simple class looks like:/// <summary> /// This class provides an easy way to turn a DataRow /// into a Dynamic object that supports direct property /// access to the DataRow fields. /// /// The class also automatically fixes up DbNull values /// (null into .NET and DbNUll to DataRow) /// </summary> public class DynamicDataRow : DynamicObject { /// <summary> /// Instance of object passed in /// </summary> DataRow DataRow; /// <summary> /// Pass in a DataRow to work off /// </summary> /// <param name="instance"></param> public DynamicDataRow(DataRow dataRow) { DataRow = dataRow; } /// <summary> /// Returns a value from a DataRow items array. /// If the field doesn't exist null is returned. /// DbNull values are turned into .NET nulls. /// /// </summary> /// <param name="binder"></param> /// <param name="result"></param> /// <returns></returns> public override bool TryGetMember(GetMemberBinder binder, out object result) { result = null; try { result = DataRow[binder.Name]; if (result == DBNull.Value) result = null; return true; } catch { } result = null; return false; } /// <summary> /// Property setter implementation tries to retrieve value from instance /// first then into this object /// </summary> /// <param name="binder"></param> /// <param name="value"></param> /// <returns></returns> public override bool TrySetMember(SetMemberBinder binder, object value) { try { if (value == null) value = DBNull.Value; DataRow[binder.Name] = value; return true; } catch {} return false; } } To demonstrate the basic features here's a short test: [TestMethod] [ExpectedException(typeof(RuntimeBinderException))] public void BasicDataRowTests() { DataTable table = new DataTable("table"); table.Columns.Add( new DataColumn() { ColumnName = "Name", DataType=typeof(string) }); table.Columns.Add( new DataColumn() { ColumnName = "Entered", DataType=typeof(DateTime) }); table.Columns.Add(new DataColumn() { ColumnName = "NullValue", DataType = typeof(string) }); DataRow row = table.NewRow(); DateTime now = DateTime.Now; row["Name"] = "Rick"; row["Entered"] = now; row["NullValue"] = null; // converted in DbNull dynamic drow = new DynamicDataRow(row); string name = drow.Name; DateTime entered = drow.Entered; string nulled = drow.NullValue; Assert.AreEqual(name, "Rick"); Assert.AreEqual(entered,now); Assert.IsNull(nulled); // this should throw a RuntimeBinderException Assert.AreEqual(entered,drow.enteredd); } The DynamicDataRow requires a custom constructor that accepts a single parameter that sets the DataRow. Once that's done you can access property values that match the field names. Note that types are automatically converted - no type casting is needed in the code you write. The class also automatically converts DbNulls to regular nulls and vice versa which is something that makes it much easier to deal with data returned from a database. What's cool here isn't so much the functionality - even if I'd prefer to leave DataRow behind ASAP -  but the fact that we can create a dynamic type that uses a DataRow as it's 'DataSource' to serve member values. It's pretty useful feature if you think about it, especially given how little code it takes to implement. By implementing these two simple methods we get to provide two features I was complaining about at the beginning that are missing from the DataRow: Direct Property Syntax Automatic Type Casting so no explicit casts are required Caveats As cool and easy as this functionality is, it's important to understand that it doesn't come for free. The dynamic features in .NET are - well - dynamic. Which means they are essentially evaluated at runtime (late bound). Rather than static typing where everything is compiled and linked by the compiler/linker, member invokations are looked up at runtime and essentially call into your custom code. There's some overhead in this. Direct invocations - the original code I showed - is going to be faster than the equivalent dynamic code. However, in the above code the difference of running the dynamic code and the original data access code was very minor. The loop running over 1500 result records took on average 13ms with the original code and 14ms with the dynamic code. Not exactly a serious performance bottleneck. One thing to remember is that Microsoft optimized the DLR code significantly so that repeated calls to the same operations are routed very efficiently which actually makes for very fast evaluation. The bottom line for performance with dynamic code is: Make sure you test and profile your code if you think that there might be a performance issue. However, in my experience with dynamic types so far performance is pretty good for repeated operations (ie. in loops). While usually a little slower the perf hit is a lot less typically than equivalent Reflection work. Although the code in the second example looks like standard object syntax, dynamic is not static code. It's evaluated at runtime and so there's no type recognition until runtime. This means no Intellisense at development time, and any invalid references that call into 'properties' (ie. fields in the DataRow) that don't exist still cause runtime errors. So in the case of the data row you still get a runtime error if you mistype a column name:// this should throw a RuntimeBinderException Assert.AreEqual(entered,drow.enteredd); Dynamic - Lots of uses The arrival of Dynamic types in .NET has been met with mixed emotions. Die hard .NET developers decry dynamic types as an abomination to the language. After all what dynamic accomplishes goes against all that a static language is supposed to provide. On the other hand there are clearly scenarios when dynamic can make life much easier (COM Interop being one place). Think of the possibilities. What other data structures would you like to expose to a simple property interface rather than some sort of collection or dictionary? And beyond what I showed here you can also implement 'Method missing' behavior on objects with InvokeMember which essentially allows you to create dynamic methods. It's all very flexible and maybe just as important: It's easy to do. There's a lot of power hidden in this seemingly simple interface. Your move…© Rick Strahl, West Wind Technologies, 2005-2011Posted in CSharp  .NET   Tweet (function() { var po = document.createElement('script'); po.type = 'text/javascript'; po.async = true; po.src = 'https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(po, s); })();

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• T-SQL Tuesday #33: Trick Shots: Undocumented, Underdocumented, and Unknown Conspiracies!

  - by Most Valuable Yak (Rob Volk)

  Mike Fal (b | t) is hosting this month's T-SQL Tuesday on Trick Shots.  I love this choice because I've been preoccupied with sneaky/tricky/evil SQL Server stuff for a long time and have been presenting on it for the past year.  Mike's directives were "Show us a cool trick or process you developed…It doesn’t have to be useful", which most of my blogging definitely fits, and "Tell us what you learned from this trick…tell us how it gave you insight in to how SQL Server works", which is definitely a new concept.  I've done a lot of reading and watching on SQL Server Internals and even attended training, but sometimes I need to go explore on my own, using my own tools and techniques.  It's an itch I get every few months, and, well, it sure beats workin'. I've found some people to be intimidated by SQL Server's internals, and I'll admit there are A LOT of internals to keep track of, but there are tons of excellent resources that clearly document most of them, and show how knowing even the basics of internals can dramatically improve your database's performance.  It may seem like rocket science, or even brain surgery, but you don't have to be a genius to understand it. Although being an "evil genius" can help you learn some things they haven't told you about. ;) This blog post isn't a traditional "deep dive" into internals, it's more of an approach to find out how a program works.  It utilizes an extremely handy tool from an even more extremely handy suite of tools, Sysinternals.  I'm not the only one who finds Sysinternals useful for SQL Server: Argenis Fernandez (b | t), Microsoft employee and former T-SQL Tuesday host, has an excellent presentation on how to troubleshoot SQL Server using Sysinternals, and I highly recommend it.  Argenis didn't cover the Strings.exe utility, but I'll be using it to "hack" the SQL Server executable (DLL and EXE) files. Please note that I'm not promoting software piracy or applying these techniques to attack SQL Server via internal knowledge. This is strictly educational and doesn't reveal any proprietary Microsoft information.  And since Argenis works for Microsoft and demonstrated Sysinternals with SQL Server, I'll just let him take the blame for it. :P (The truth is I've used Strings.exe on SQL Server before I ever met Argenis.) Once you download and install Strings.exe you can run it from the command line.  For our purposes we'll want to run this in the Binn folder of your SQL Server instance (I'm referencing SQL Server 2012 RTM): cd "C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL11\MSSQL\Binn" C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL11\MSSQL\Binn> strings *sql*.dll > sqldll.txt C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL11\MSSQL\Binn> strings *sql*.exe > sqlexe.txt   I've limited myself to DLLs and EXEs that have "sql" in their names.  There are quite a few more but I haven't examined them in any detail. (Homework assignment for you!) If you run this yourself you'll get 2 text files, one with all the extracted strings from every SQL DLL file, and the other with the SQL EXE strings.  You can open these in Notepad, but you're better off using Notepad++, EditPad, Emacs, Vim or another more powerful text editor, as these will be several megabytes in size. And when you do open it…you'll find…a TON of gibberish.  (If you think that's bad, just try opening the raw DLL or EXE file in Notepad.  And by the way, don't do this in production, or even on a running instance of SQL Server.)  Even if you don't clean up the file, you can still use your editor's search function to find a keyword like "SELECT" or some other item you expect to be there.  As dumb as this sounds, I sometimes spend my lunch break just scanning the raw text for anything interesting.  I'm boring like that. Sometimes though, having these files available can lead to some incredible learning experiences.  For me the most recent time was after reading Joe Sack's post on non-parallel plan reasons.  He mentions a new SQL Server 2012 execution plan element called NonParallelPlanReason, and demonstrates a query that generates "MaxDOPSetToOne".  Joe (formerly on the Microsoft SQL Server product team, so he knows this stuff) mentioned that this new element was not currently documented and tried a few more examples to see what other reasons could be generated. Since I'd already run Strings.exe on the SQL Server DLLs and EXE files, it was easy to run grep/find/findstr for MaxDOPSetToOne on those extracts.  Once I found which files it belonged to (sqlmin.dll) I opened the text to see if the other reasons were listed.  As you can see in my comment on Joe's blog, there were about 20 additional non-parallel reasons.  And while it's not "documentation" of this underdocumented feature, the names are pretty self-explanatory about what can prevent parallel processing. I especially like the ones about cursors – more ammo! - and am curious about the PDW compilation and Cloud DB replication reasons. One reason completely stumped me: NoParallelHekatonPlan.  What the heck is a hekaton?  Google and Wikipedia were vague, and the top results were not in English.  I found one reference to Greek, stating "hekaton" can be translated as "hundredfold"; with a little more Wikipedia-ing this leads to hecto, the prefix for "one hundred" as a unit of measure.  I'm not sure why Microsoft chose hekaton for such a plan name, but having already learned some Greek I figured I might as well dig some more in the DLL text for hekaton.  Here's what I found: hekaton_slow_param_passing Occurs when a Hekaton procedure call dispatch goes to slow parameter passing code path The reason why Hekaton parameter passing code took the slow code path hekaton_slow_param_pass_reason sp_deploy_hekaton_database sp_undeploy_hekaton_database sp_drop_hekaton_database sp_checkpoint_hekaton_database sp_restore_hekaton_database e:\sql11_main_t\sql\ntdbms\hekaton\sqlhost\sqllang\hkproc.cpp e:\sql11_main_t\sql\ntdbms\hekaton\sqlhost\sqllang\matgen.cpp e:\sql11_main_t\sql\ntdbms\hekaton\sqlhost\sqllang\matquery.cpp e:\sql11_main_t\sql\ntdbms\hekaton\sqlhost\sqllang\sqlmeta.cpp e:\sql11_main_t\sql\ntdbms\hekaton\sqlhost\sqllang\resultset.cpp Interesting!  The first 4 entries (in red) mention parameters and "slow code".  Could this be the foundation of the mythical DBCC RUNFASTER command?  Have I been passing my parameters the slow way all this time? And what about those sp_xxxx_hekaton_database procedures (in blue)? Could THEY be the secret to a faster SQL Server? Could they promise a "hundredfold" improvement in performance?  Are these special, super-undocumented DIB (databases in black)? I decided to look in the SQL Server system views for any objects with hekaton in the name, or references to them, in hopes of discovering some new code that would answer all my questions: SELECT name FROM sys.all_objects WHERE name LIKE '%hekaton%' SELECT name FROM sys.all_objects WHERE object_definition(OBJECT_ID) LIKE '%hekaton%' Which revealed: name ------------------------ (0 row(s) affected) name ------------------------ sp_createstats sp_recompile sp_updatestats (3 row(s) affected)   Hmm.  Well that didn't find much.  Looks like these procedures are seriously undocumented, unknown, perhaps forbidden knowledge. Maybe a part of some unspeakable evil? (No, I'm not paranoid, I just like mysteries and thought that punching this up with that kind of thing might keep you reading.  I know I'd fall asleep without it.) OK, so let's check out those 3 procedures and see what they reveal when I search for "Hekaton": sp_createstats: -- filter out local temp tables, Hekaton tables, and tables for which current user has no permissions -- Note that OBJECTPROPERTY returns NULL on type="IT" tables, thus we only call it on type='U' tables   OK, that's interesting, let's go looking down a little further: ((@table_type<>'U') or (0 = OBJECTPROPERTY(@table_id, 'TableIsInMemory'))) and -- Hekaton table   Wellllll, that tells us a few new things: There's such a thing as Hekaton tables (UPDATE: I'm not the only one to have found them!) They are not standard user tables and probably not in memory UPDATE: I misinterpreted this because I didn't read all the code when I wrote this blog post. The OBJECTPROPERTY function has an undocumented TableIsInMemory option Let's check out sp_recompile: -- (3) Must not be a Hekaton procedure.   And once again go a little further: if (ObjectProperty(@objid, 'IsExecuted') <> 0 AND ObjectProperty(@objid, 'IsInlineFunction') = 0 AND ObjectProperty(@objid, 'IsView') = 0 AND -- Hekaton procedure cannot be recompiled -- Make them go through schema version bumping branch, which will fail ObjectProperty(@objid, 'ExecIsCompiledProc') = 0)   And now we learn that hekaton procedures also exist, they can't be recompiled, there's a "schema version bumping branch" somewhere, and OBJECTPROPERTY has another undocumented option, ExecIsCompiledProc.  (If you experiment with this you'll find this option returns null, I think it only works when called from a system object.) This is neat! Sadly sp_updatestats doesn't reveal anything new, the comments about hekaton are the same as sp_createstats.  But we've ALSO discovered undocumented features for the OBJECTPROPERTY function, which we can now search for: SELECT name, object_definition(OBJECT_ID) FROM sys.all_objects WHERE object_definition(OBJECT_ID) LIKE '%OBJECTPROPERTY(%'   I'll leave that to you as more homework.  I should add that searching the system procedures was recommended long ago by the late, great Ken Henderson, in his Guru's Guide books, as a great way to find undocumented features.  That seems to be really good advice! Now if you're a programmer/hacker, you've probably been drooling over the last 5 entries for hekaton (in green), because these are the names of source code files for SQL Server!  Does this mean we can access the source code for SQL Server?  As The Oracle suggested to Neo, can we return to The Source??? Actually, no. Well, maybe a little bit.  While you won't get the actual source code from the compiled DLL and EXE files, you'll get references to source files, debugging symbols, variables and module names, error messages, and even the startup flags for SQL Server.  And if you search for "DBCC" or "CHECKDB" you'll find a really nice section listing all the DBCC commands, including the undocumented ones.  Granted those are pretty easy to find online, but you may be surprised what those web sites DIDN'T tell you! (And neither will I, go look for yourself!)  And as we saw earlier, you'll also find execution plan elements, query processing rules, and who knows what else.  It's also instructive to see how Microsoft organizes their source directories, how various components (storage engine, query processor, Full Text, AlwaysOn/HADR) are split into smaller modules. There are over 2000 source file references, go do some exploring! So what did we learn?  We can pull strings out of executable files, search them for known items, browse them for unknown items, and use the results to examine internal code to learn even more things about SQL Server.  We've even learned how to use command-line utilities!  We are now 1337 h4X0rz!  (Not really.  I hate that leetspeak crap.) Although, I must confess I might've gone too far with the "conspiracy" part of this post.  I apologize for that, it's just my overactive imagination.  There's really no hidden agenda or conspiracy regarding SQL Server internals.  It's not The Matrix.  It's not like you'd find anything like that in there: Attach Matrix Database DM_MATRIX_COMM_PIPELINES MATRIXXACTPARTICIPANTS dm_matrix_agents   Alright, enough of this paranoid ranting!  Microsoft are not really evil!  It's not like they're The Borg from Star Trek: ALTER FEDERATION DROP ALTER FEDERATION SPLIT DROP FEDERATION   #tsql2sday

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• Craftsmanship is ALL that Matters

  - by Wayne Molina

  Today, I'm going to talk about a touchy subject: the notion of working in a company that doesn't use the prescribed "best practices" in its software development endeavours.  Over the years I have, using a variety of pseudonyms, asked this question on popular programming forums.  Although I always add in some minor variation of the story to avoid suspicion that it's the same person posting, the crux of the tale remains the same: A Programmer’s Tale A junior software developer has just started a new job at an average company, creating average line-of-business applications for internal use (the most typical scenario programmers find themselves in).  This hypothetical newbie has spent a lot of time reading up on the "theory" of software development, devouring books, blogs and screencasts from well-known and respected software developers in the community in order to broaden his knowledge and "do what the pros do".  He begins his new job, eager to apply what he's learned on a real-world project only to discover that his new teammates doesn't use any of those concepts and techniques.  They hack their way through development, or in a best-case scenario use some homebrew, thrown-together semblance of a framework for their applications that follows not one of the best practices suggested by the “elite” in the software community - things like TDD (TDD as a "best practice" is the only subjective part of this post, but it's included here due to a very large following of respected developers who consider it one), the SOLID principles, well-known and venerable tools, even version control in a worst case and truly nightmarish scenario.  Our protagonist is frustrated that he isn't doing things the "proper" way - a way he's spent personal time digesting and learning about and, more importantly, a way that some of the top developers in the industry advocate - and turns to a forum to ask the advice of his peers. Invariably the answer I, in the guise of the concerned newbie, will receive is that A) I don't know anything and should just shut my mouth and sling code the bad way like everybody else on the team, and B) These "best practices" are fade or a joke, and the only thing that matters is shipping software to your customers. I am here today to say that anyone who says this, or anything like it, is not only full of crap but indicative of exactly the type of “developer” that has helped to give our industry a bad name.  Here is why: One Who Knows Nothing, Understands Nothing On one hand, you have the cognoscenti of the .NET development world.  Guys like James Avery, Jeremy Miller, Ayende Rahien and Rob Conery; all well-respected and noted programmers that are pretty much our version of celebrities.  These guys write blogs, books, and post videos outlining the "correct" way of writing software to make sure it not only works but is maintainable and extensible and a joy to work with.  They tout the virtues of the SOLID principles, or of using TDD/BDD, or using a mature ORM like NHibernate, Subsonic or even Entity Framework. On the other hand, you have Joe Everyman, Lead Software Developer at Initrode Corporation - in our hypothetical story Joe is the junior developer's new boss.  Joe's been with Initrode for 10 years, starting as the company’s very first programmer and over the years building up a little fiefdom of his own until at the present he’s in charge of all Initrode’s software development.  Joe writes code the same way he always has, without bothering to learn much, if anything.  He looked at NHibernate once and found it was "too hard", so he uses a primitive implementation of the TableDataGateway pattern as a wrapper around SqlClient.SqlConnection and SqlClient.SqlCommand instead of an actual ORM (or, in a better case scenario, has created his own ORM); the thought of using LINQ or Entity Framework or really anything other than his own hastily homebrew solution has never occurred to him.  He doesn't understand TDD and considers “testing” to be using the .NET debugger to step through code, or simply loading up an app and entering some values to see if it works.  He doesn't really understand SOLID, and he doesn't care to.  He's worked as a programmer for years, and that's all that counts.  Right?  WRONG. Who would you rather trust?  Someone with years of experience and who writes books, creates well-known software and is akin to a celebrity, or someone with no credibility outside their own minute environment who throws around their clout and company seniority as the "proof" of their ability?  Joe Everyman may have years of experience at Initrode as a programmer, and says to do things "his way" but someone like Jeremy Miller or Ayende Rahien have years of experience at companies just like Initrode, THEY know ten times more than Joe Everyman knows or could ever hope to know, and THEY say to do things "this way". Here's another way of thinking about it: If you wanted to get into politics and needed advice on the best way to do it, would you rather listen to the mayor of Hicktown, USA or Barack Obama?  One is a small-time nobody while the other is very well-known and, as such, would probably have much more accurate and beneficial advice. NOTE: The selection of Barack Obama as an example in no way, shape, or form suggests a political affiliation or political bent to this post or blog, and no political innuendo should be mistakenly read from it; the intent was merely to compare a small-time persona with a well-known persona in a non-software field.  Feel free to replace the name "Barack Obama" with any well-known Congressman, Senator or US President of your choice. DIY Considered Harmful I will say right now that the homebrew development environment is the WORST one for an aspiring programmer, because it relies on nothing outside it's own little box - no useful skill outside of the small pond.  If you are forced to use some half-baked, homebrew ORM created by your Director of Software, you are not learning anything valuable you can take with you in the future; now, if you plan to stay at Initrode for 10 years like Joe Everyman, this is fine and dandy.  However if, like most of us, you want to advance your career outside a very narrow space you will do more harm than good by sticking it out in an environment where you, to be frank, know better than everybody else because you are aware of alternative and, in almost most cases, better tools for the job.  A junior developer who understands why the SOLID principles are good to follow, or why TDD is beneficial, or who knows that it's better to use NHibernate/Subsonic/EF/LINQ/well-known ORM versus some in-house one knows better than a senior developer with 20 years experience who doesn't understand any of that, plain and simple.  Anyone who disagrees is either a liar, or someone who, just like Joe Everyman, Lead Developer, relies on seniority and tenure rather than adapting their knowledge as things evolve. In many cases, the Joe Everymans of the world act this way out of fear - they cannot possibly fathom that a “junior” could know more than them; after all, they’ve spent 10 or more years in the same company, doing the same job, cranking out the same shoddy software.  And here comes a newbie who hasn’t spent 10+ years doing the same things, with a fresh and often radical take on the craft, and Joe Everyman is afraid he might have to put some real effort into his career again instead of just pointing to his 10 years of service at Initrode as “proof” that he’s good, or that he might have to learn something new to improve; in most cases the problem is Joe Everyman, and by extension Initrode itself, has a mentality of just being “good enough”, and mediocrity is the rule of the day. A Thorn Bush is No Place for a Phoenix My advice is that if you work on a team where they don't use the best practices that some of the most famous developers in our field say is the "right" way to do things (and have legions of people who agree), and YOU are aware of these practices and can see why they work, then LEAVE the company.  Find a company where they DO care about quality, and craftsmanship, otherwise you will never be happy.  There is no point in "dumbing" yourself down to the level of your co-workers and slinging code without care to craftsmanship.  In 95% of these situations there will be no point in bringing it to the attention of Joe Everyman because he won't listen; he might even get upset that someone is trying to "upstage" him and fire the newbie, and replace someone with loads of untapped potential with a drone that will just nod affirmatively and grind out the tasks assigned without question. Find a company that has people smart enough to listen to the "best and brightest", and be happy.  Do not, I repeat, DO NOT waste away in a job working for ignorant people.  At the end of the day software development IS a craft, and a level of craftsmanship is REQUIRED for any serious professional.  When you have knowledgeable people with the credibility to back it up saying one thing, and small-time people who are, to put it bluntly, nobodies in the field saying and doing something totally different because they can't comprehend it, leave the nobodies to their own devices to fade into obscurity.  Work for a company that uses REAL software engineering techniques and really cares about craftsmanship.  The biggest issue affecting our career, and the reason software development has never been the respected, white-collar career it was meant to be, is because hacks and charlatans can pass themselves off as professional programmers without following a lick of good advice from programmers much better at the craft than they are.  These modern day snake-oil salesmen entrench themselves in companies by hoodwinking non-technical businesspeople and customers with their shoddy wares, end up in senior/lead/executive positions, and push their lack of knowledge on everybody unfortunate enough to work with/for/under them, crushing any dissent or voices of reason and change under their tyrannical heel and leaving behind a trail of dismayed and, often, unemployed junior developers who were made examples of to keep up the facade and avoid the shadow of doubt being cast upon them. To sum this up another way: If you surround yourself with learned people, you will learn.  Surround yourself with ignorant people who can't, as the saying goes, see the forest through the trees, and you'll learn nothing of any real value.  There is more to software development than just writing code, and the end goal should not be just "shipping software", it should be shipping software that is extensible, maintainable, and above all else software whose creation has broadened your knowledge in some capacity, even if a minor one.  An eager newbie who knows theory and thirsts for knowledge can easily be moulded and taught the advanced topics, but the same can't be said of someone who only cares about the finish line.  This industry needs more people espousing the benefits of software craftsmanship and proper software engineering techniques, and less Joe Everymans who are unwilling to adapt or foster new ways of thinking. Conclusion - I Cast “Protection from Fire” I am fairly certain this post will spark some controversy and might even invite the flames.  Please keep in mind these are opinions and nothing more.  A little healthy rant and subsequent flamewar can be good for the soul once in a while.  To paraphrase The Godfather: It helps to get rid of the bad blood.

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• CodePlex Daily Summary for Friday, September 14, 2012

  CodePlex Daily Summary for Friday, September 14, 2012Popular ReleasesSOAP Test Application (with EWS Tools): v0.60: Template modifications (to delete blank fields where they are not required). Bugfix for listener form where it wouldn't allow the program to be closed under certain conditions.BizTalk Zombie Management: BizTalkZombieManagement V0.1.0: First version Function supported : Listener on zombie event Dump the zombie message in folderTumblen3: tumblen3 Version14Sep2012: added 'proxy-getter' of tumblr's OAuth Access TokenIBR.StringResourceBuilder: V1.3 Release 2 Build 13: Fixed: "Making" a string resource left the table of string literals blank (due to "improvement" in Build 11). Improved: Sped up inserting resource call when "making" a string resource. from Build 12 New: Option to store all string resources in one resource file global to the project.Fruit Juice: Fruit Juice v1.0: First versionPDF Viewer Web part: PDF Viewer Web Part: PDF Viewer Web PartMicrosoft Ajax Minifier: Microsoft Ajax Minifier 4.67: Fix issue #18629 - incorrectly handling null characters in string literals and not throwing an error when outside string literals. update for Issue #18600 - forgot to make the ///#DEBUG= directive also set a known-global for the given debug namespace. removed the kill-switch for disregarding preprocessor define-comments (///#IF and the like) and created a separate CodeSettings.IgnorePreprocessorDefines property for those who really need to turn that off. Some people had been setting -kil...Active Forums for DotNetNuke CMS: Active Forums 05.00.00 RC3: Active Forums 05.00.00 RC3Lakana - WPF Framework: Lakana V2: Lakana V2 contains : - Lakana WPF Forms (with sample project) - Lakana WPF Navigation (with sample project)Microsoft SQL Server Product Samples: Database: OData QueryFeed workflow activity: The OData QueryFeed sample activity shows how to create a workflow activity that consumes an OData resource, and renders entity properties in a Microsoft Excel 2010 worksheet or Microsoft Word 2010 document. Using the sample QueryFeed activity, you can consume any OData resource. The sample activity uses LINQ to project OData metadata into activity designer expression items. By setting activity expressions, a fully qualified OData query string is constructed consisting of Resource, Filter, Or...Arduino for Visual Studio: Arduino 1.x for Visual Studio 2012, 2010 and 2008: Register for the visualmicro.com forum for more news and updates Version 1209.10 includes support for VS2012 and minor fixes for the Arduino debugger beta test team. Version 1208.19 is considered stable for visual studio 2010 and 2008. If you are upgrading from an older release of Visual Micro and encounter a problem then uninstall "Visual Micro for Arduino" using "Control Panel>Add and Remove Programs" and then run the install again. Key Features of 1209.10 Support for Visual Studio 2...Social Network Importer for NodeXL: SocialNetImporter(v.1.5): This new version includes: - Fixed the "resource limit" bug caused by Facebook - Bug fixes To use the new graph data provider, do the following: Unzip the Zip file into the "PlugIns" folder that can be found in the NodeXL installation folder (i.e "C:\Program Files\Social Media Research Foundation\NodeXL Excel Template\PlugIns") Open NodeXL template and you can access the new importer from the "Import" menuAcDown????? - AcDown Downloader Framework: AcDown????? v4.1: ??●AcDown??????????、??、??、???????。????，????，?????????????????????????。???????????Acfun、????(Bilibili)、??、??、YouTube、??、???、??????、SF????、????????????。 ●??????AcPlay?????，??????、????????????????。 ● AcDown??????????????????，????????????????????????????。 ● AcDown???????C#??，????.NET Framework 2.0??。?????"Acfun?????"。 ????32??64? Windows XP/Vista/7/8 ???? 32??64? ???Linux ????(1)????????Windows XP???,?????????.NET Framework 2.0???(x86)，?????"?????????"??? (2)???????????Linux???，????????Mono?? ??...Move Mouse: Move Mouse 2.5.2: FIXED - Minor fixes and improvements.MVC Controls Toolkit: Mvc Controls Toolkit 2.3: Added The new release is compatible with Mvc4 RTM. Support for handling Time Zones in dates. Specifically added helper methods to convert to UTC or local time all DateTimes contained in a model received by a controller, and helper methods to handle date only fileds. This together with a detailed documentation on how TimeZones are handled in all situations by the Asp.net Mvc framework, will contribute to mitigate the nightmare of dates and timezones. Multiple Templates, and more options to...DNN Metro7 style Skin package: Metro7 style Skin for DotNetNuke 06.02.00: Maintenance Release Changes on Metro7 06.02.00 Fixed width and height on the jQuery popup for the Editor. Navigation Provider changed to DDR menu Added menu files and scripts Changed skins to Doctype HTML Changed manifest to dnn6 manifest file Changed License to HTML view Fixed issue on Metro7/PinkTitle.ascx with double registering of the Actions Changed source folder structure and start folder, so the project works with the default DNN structure on developing Added VS 20...Xenta Framework - extensible enterprise n-tier application framework: Xenta Framework 1.9.0: Release Notes Imporved framework architecture Improved the framework security More import/export formats and operations New WebPortal application which includes forum, new, blog, catalog, etc. UIs Improved WebAdmin app. Reports, navigation and search Perfomance optimization Improve Xenta.Catalog domain More plugin interfaces and plugin implementations Refactoring Windows Azure support and much more... Package Guide Source Code - package contains the source code Binaries...Json.NET: Json.NET 4.5 Release 9: New feature - Added JsonValueConverter New feature - Set a property's DefaultValueHandling to Ignore when EmitDefaultValue from DataMemberAttribute is false Fix - Fixed DefaultValueHandling.Ignore not igoring default values of non-nullable properties Fix - Fixed DefaultValueHandling.Populate error with non-nullable properties Fix - Fixed error when writing JSON for a JProperty with no value Fix - Fixed error when calling ToList on empty JObjects and JArrays Fix - Fixed losing deci...DotNetNuke® Community Edition CMS: 07.00.00 CTP (Not for Production Use): NOTE: New Minimum Requirementshttp://www.dotnetnuke.com/Portals/25/Blog/Files/1/3418/Windows-Live-Writer-1426fd8a58ef_902C-MinimumVersionSupport_2.png Simplified InstallerThe first thing you will notice is that the installer has been updated. Not only have we updated the look and feel, but we also simplified the overall install process. You shouldn’t have to click through a series of screens in order to just get your website running. With the 7.0 installer we have taken an approach that a...WinRT XAML Toolkit: WinRT XAML Toolkit - 1.2.2: WinRT XAML Toolkit based on the Windows 8 RTM SDK. Download the latest source from the SOURCE CODE page. For compiled version use NuGet. You can add it to your project in Visual Studio by going to View/Other Windows/Package Manager Console and entering: PM> Install-Package winrtxamltoolkit Features AsyncUI extensions Controls and control extensions Converters Debugging helpers Imaging IO helpers VisualTree helpers Samples Recent changes NOTE: Namespace changes DebugConsol...New Projects$linq - A Javascript LINQ library: $linq is a Javascript version of .NET's Linq to Objects, with some query operations inspired by MoreLinq (an extension to Linq to Objects).AIlin: Some math operations with sparse and full matrices, elliptic curves and big numbersCapMvcHospital: Proyecto Hospital MVC para ABM de consultas clínicas y DoctoresChris on SharePoint Solutions: A collection of handy SharePoint solutions to make life easier for Site and Farm administrators.COTFACIL: O projeto visa estudar a integração web, mysql e visual studio 2010, para o estudo e conhecimento geral.Custom People Picker: The custom control which inherits the property of the "People Picker" control to display the items from the list.Data Sampler: The library allows the developer to quickly create dummy data or it can also be used to save a set of data that was originally retrieved from the database.DevelopEnvironment: ????????DotNetNuke Search Engine Sitemaps Provider: The iFinity DotNetNuke Search Engine Sitemaps Provider project generates Search Engine Sitemaps for DotNetNuke installs.Gapper Game: This is a recreation of the GAPPER DOS game that was released in 1986. 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Vui lòng không s? d?ng vào m?c dích thuong m?i khi chua du?c s? d?ng ý c?a tác gi?.Runtime Dynamic Data Model Builder: Runtime Dynamic Data Model Builder lets you to have a Data Access Layer without writing code. It creates the database context and POCO based on Entity FrameworkSchoolProjectShitXD: Just a bunch of crap I am creating in my School,Scripture Reference Parser: Scripture Reference Parser is a library to parse data, including book, chapter, verse, and index, from references from various scriptures.Shadow: Shadow?????WCF??Remoting?ORM??，????????????????????。SharePoint Archive Tweets: Using REST, JSON and OAuth, SharePoint Archive Tweets (SPAT) was born. SPAT is a Microsoft SharePoint 2010 timer application that downloads Twitter timelines.Softech Portal - Vietnamese Portal: Gi?i pháp c?ng thông tin di?n t? thu?n Vi?t cho co quan hành chính Nhà Nu?c testdd09132012git01: sdtestdd09132012git02: ntestdd09132012hg01: dtestdd09132012tfs01: dteste tfs: testeTestRepository: Project Testing repository onlinetesttfs09132012tfs02: nThesis: This is my thesis project. It is about EDAs and Kernel classifiers. The source code is in Matlab.Tiny Contact Manager: Tiny Contact Manager manages collecting customer birthday and registration details and also sending out birthday vouchers.User Group Labs: My Groups: This is one of a series of social modules in the DotNetNuke User Group Labs project. This module allows you to easily lists the groups that a user is a part ofVatConnect: This is a Microsoft Flight Simulator add-on to connect it to the Vatsim network.Web Minesweeper with MVVM and Knockout: This is a common minesweeper game, that is implemented with mvvm in the web, only with html and javascipts libraries...Windows 8 - Using Roaming Storage in a Casual Game: This application demonstrates a simple game written for Windows 8 that illustrates how to utilize the Roaming Data Store for game data synchronization.xamlShow: This project is a demonstration of how to accomplish common tasks using WinRT XAML on Windows 8. This project is, basically, sample code used by Jerry Nixon.YTNet: YT Net is a small library which provides features for searching and downloading YouTube videos.

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• How Visual Studio 2010 and Team Foundation Server enable Compliance

  - by Martin Hinshelwood

  One of the things that makes Team Foundation Server (TFS) the most powerful Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) platform is the traceability it provides to those that use it. This traceability is crucial to enable many companies to adhere to many of the Compliance regulations to which they are bound (e.g. CFR 21 Part 11 or Sarbanes–Oxley.)   From something as simple as relating Tasks to Check-in’s or being able to see the top 10 files in your codebase that are causing the most Bugs, to identifying which Bugs and Requirements are in which Release. All that information is available and more in TFS. Although all of this tradability is available within TFS you do need to understand that it is not for free. Well… I say that, but if you are using TFS properly you will have this information with no additional work except for firing up the reporting. Using Visual Studio ALM and Team Foundation Server you can relate every line of code changes all the way up to requirements and back down through Test Cases to the Test Results. Figure: The only thing missing is Build In order to build the relationship model below we need to examine how each of the relationships get there. Each member of your team from programmer to tester and Business Analyst to Business have their roll to play to knit this together. Figure: The relationships required to make this work can get a little confusing If Build is added to this to relate Work Items to Builds and with knowledge of which builds are in which environments you can easily identify what is contained within a Release. Figure: How are things progressing Along with the ability to produce the progress and trend reports the tractability that is built into TFS can be used to fulfil most audit requirements out of the box, and augmented to fulfil the rest. In order to understand the relationships, lets look at each of the important Artifacts and how they are associated with each other… Requirements – The root of all knowledge Requirements are the thing that the business cares about delivering. These could be derived as User Stories or Business Requirements Documents (BRD’s) but they should be what the Business asks for. Requirements can be related to many of the Artifacts in TFS, so lets look at the model: Figure: If the centre of the world was a requirement We can track which releases Requirements were scheduled in, but this can change over time as more details come to light. Figure: Who edited the Requirement and when There is also the ability to query Work Items based on the History of changed that were made to it. This is particularly important with Requirements. It might not be enough to say what Requirements were completed in a given but also to know which Requirements were ever assigned to a particular release. Figure: Some magic required, but result still achieved As an augmentation to this it is also possible to run a query that shows results from the past, just as if we had a time machine. You can take any Query in the system and add a “Asof” clause at the end to query historical data in the operational store for TFS. select <fields> from WorkItems [where <condition>] [order by <fields>] [asof <date>] Figure: Work Item Query Language (WIQL) format In order to achieve this you do need to save the query as a *.wiql file to your local computer and edit it in notepad, but one imported into TFS you run it any time you want. Figure: Saving Queries locally can be useful All of these Audit features are available throughout the Work Item Tracking (WIT) system within TFS. Tasks – Where the real work gets done Tasks are the work horse of the development team, but they only as useful as Excel if you do not relate them properly to other Artifacts. Figure: The Task Work Item Type has its own relationships Requirements should be broken down into Tasks that the development team work from to build what is required by the business. This may be done by a small dedicated group or by everyone that will be working on the software team but however it happens all of the Tasks create should be a Child of a Requirement Work Item Type. Figure: Tasks are related to the Requirement Tasks should be used to track the day-to-day activities of the team working to complete the software and as such they should be kept simple and short lest developers think they are more trouble than they are worth. Figure: Task Work Item Type has a narrower purpose Although the Task Work Item Type describes the work that will be done the actual development work involves making changes to files that are under Source Control. These changes are bundled together in a single atomic unit called a Changeset which is committed to TFS in a single operation. During this operation developers can associate Work Item with the Changeset. Figure: Tasks are associated with Changesets   Changesets – Who wrote this crap Changesets themselves are just an inventory of the changes that were made to a number of files to complete a Task. Figure: Changesets are linked by Tasks and Builds   Figure: Changesets tell us what happened to the files in Version Control Although comments can be changed after the fact, the inventory and Work Item associations are permanent which allows us to Audit all the way down to the individual change level. Figure: On Check-in you can resolve a Task which automatically associates it Because of this we can view the history on any file within the system and see how many changes have been made and what Changesets they belong to. Figure: Changes are tracked at the File level What would be even more powerful would be if we could view these changes super imposed over the top of the lines of code. Some people call this a blame tool because it is commonly used to find out which of the developers introduced a bug, but it can also be used as another method of Auditing changes to the system. Figure: Annotate shows the lines the Annotate functionality allows us to visualise the relationship between the individual lines of code and the Changesets. In addition to this you can create a Label and apply it to a version of your version control. The problem with Label’s is that they can be changed after they have been created with no tractability. This makes them practically useless for any sort of compliance audit. So what do you use? Branches – And why we need them Branches are a really powerful tool for development and release management, but they are most important for audits. Figure: One way to Audit releases The R1.0 branch can be created from the Label that the Build creates on the R1 line when a Release build was created. It can be created as soon as the Build has been signed of for release. However it is still possible that someone changed the Label between this time and its creation. Another better method can be to explicitly link the Build output to the Build. Builds – Lets tie some more of this together Builds are the glue that helps us enable the next level of tractability by tying everything together. Figure: The dashed pieces are not out of the box but can be enabled When the Build is called and starts it looks at what it has been asked to build and determines what code it is going to get and build. Figure: The folder identifies what changes are included in the build The Build sets a Label on the Source with the same name as the Build, but the Build itself also includes the latest Changeset ID that it will be building. At the end of the Build the Build Agent identifies the new Changesets it is building by looking at the Check-ins that have occurred since the last Build. Figure: What changes have been made since the last successful Build It will then use that information to identify the Work Items that are associated with all of the Changesets Changesets are associated with Build and change the “Integrated In” field of those Work Items . Figure: Find all of the Work Items to associate with The “Integrated In” field of all of the Work Items identified by the Build Agent as being integrated into the completed Build are updated to reflect the Build number that successfully integrated that change. Figure: Now we know which Work Items were completed in a build Now that we can link a single line of code changed all the way back through the Task that initiated the action to the Requirement that started the whole thing and back down to the Build that contains the finished Requirement. But how do we know wither that Requirement has been fully tested or even meets the original Requirements? Test Cases – How we know we are done The only way we can know wither a Requirement has been completed to the required specification is to Test that Requirement. In TFS there is a Work Item type called a Test Case Test Cases enable two scenarios. The first scenario is the ability to track and validate Acceptance Criteria in the form of a Test Case. If you agree with the Business a set of goals that must be met for a Requirement to be accepted by them it makes it both difficult for them to reject a Requirement when it passes all of the tests, but also provides a level of tractability and validation for audit that a feature has been built and tested to order. Figure: You can have many Acceptance Criteria for a single Requirement It is crucial for this to work that someone from the Business has to sign-off on the Test Case moving from the  “Design” to “Ready” states. The Second is the ability to associate an MS Test test with the Test Case thereby tracking the automated test. This is useful in the circumstance when you want to Track a test and the test results of a Unit Test designed to test the existence of and then re-existence of a a Bug. Figure: Associating a Test Case with an automated Test Although it is possible it may not make sense to track the execution of every Unit Test in your system, there are many Integration and Regression tests that may be automated that it would make sense to track in this way. Bug – Lets not have regressions In order to know wither a Bug in the application has been fixed and to make sure that it does not reoccur it needs to be tracked. Figure: Bugs are the centre of their own world If the fix to a Bug is big enough to require that it is broken down into Tasks then it is probably a Requirement. You can associate a check-in with a Bug and have it tracked against a Build. You would also have one or more Test Cases to prove the fix for the Bug. Figure: Bugs have many associations This allows you to track Bugs / Defects in your system effectively and report on them. Change Request – I am not a feature In the CMMI Process template Change Requests can also be easily tracked through the system. In some cases it can be very important to track Change Requests separately as an Auditor may want to know what was changed and who authorised it. Again and similar to Bugs, if the Change Request is big enough that it would require to be broken down into Tasks it is in reality a new feature and should be tracked as a Requirement. Figure: Make sure your Change Requests only Affect Requirements and not rewrite them Conclusion Visual Studio 2010 and Team Foundation Server together provide an exceptional Application Lifecycle Management platform that can help your team comply with even the harshest of Compliance requirements while still enabling them to be Agile. Most Audits are heavy on required documentation but most of that information is captured for you as long a you do it right. You don’t even need every team member to understand it all as each of the Artifacts are relevant to a different type of team member. Business Analysts manage Requirements and Change Requests Programmers manage Tasks and check-in against Change Requests and Bugs Testers manage Bugs and Test Cases Build Masters manage Builds Although there is some crossover there are still rolls or “hats” that are worn. Do you thing this is all achievable? Have I missed anything that you think should be there?

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• Stumbling Through: Visual Studio 2010 (Part IV)

  So finally we get to the fun part the fruits of all of our middle-tier/back end labors of generating classes to interface with an XML data source that the previous posts were about can now be presented quickly and easily to an end user.  I think.  Well see.  Well be using a WPF window to display all of our various MFL information that weve collected in the two XML files, and well provide a means of adding, updating and deleting each of these entities using as little code as possible.  Additionally, I would like to dig into the performance of this solution as well as the flexibility of it if were were to modify the underlying XML schema.  So first things first, lets create a WPF project and include our xml data in a data folder within.  On the main window, well drag out the following controls: A combo box to contain all of the teams A list box to show the players of the selected team, along with add/delete player buttons A text box tied to the selected players name, with a save button to save any changes made to the player name A combo box of all the available positions, tied to the currently selected players position A data grid tied to the statistics of the currently selected player, with add/delete statistic buttons This monstrosity of a form and its associated project will look like this (dont forget to reference the DataFoundation project from the Presentation project): To get to the visual data binding, as we learned in a previous post, you have to first make sure the project containing your bindable classes is compiled.  Do so, and then open the Data Sources pane to add a reference to the Teams and Positions classes in the DataFoundation project: Why only Team and Position?  Well, we will get to Players from Teams, and Statistics from Players so no need to make an interface for them as well see in a second.  As for Positions, well need a way to bind the dropdown to ALL positions they dont appear underneath any of the other classes so we need to reference it directly.  After adding these guys, expand every node in your Data Sources pane and see how the Team node allows you to drill into Players and then Statistics.  This is why there was no need to bring in a reference to those classes for the UI we are designing: Now for the seriously hard work of binding all of our controls to the correct data sources.  Drag the following items from the Data Sources pane to the specified control on the window design canvas: Team.Name > Teams combo box Team.Players.Name > Players list box Team.Players.Name > Player name text box Team.Players.Statistics > Statistics data grid Position.Name > Positions combo box That is it!  Really?  Well, no, not really there is one caveat here in that the Positions combo box is not bound the selected players position.  To do so, we will apply a binding to the position combo boxs SelectedValue to point to the current players PositionId value: That should do the trick now, all we need to worry about is loading the actual data.  Sadly, it appears as if we will need to drop to code in order to invoke our IO methods to load all teams and positions.  At least Visual Studio kindly created the stubs for us to do so, ultimately the code should look like this: Note the weirdness with the InitializeDataFiles call that is my current means of telling an IO where to load the data for each of the entities.  I havent thought of a more intuitive way than that yet, but do note that all data is loaded from Teams.xml besides for positions, which is loaded from Lookups.xml.   I think that may be all we need to do to at least load all of the data, lets run it and see: Yay!  All of our glorious data is being displayed!  Er, wait, whats up with the position dropdown?  Why is it red?  Lets select the RB and see if everything updates: Crap, the position didnt update to reflect the selected player, but everything else did.  Where did we go wrong in binding the position to the selected player?  Thinking about it a bit and comparing it to how traditional data binding works, I realize that we never set the value member (or some similar property) to tell the control to join the Id of the source (positions) to the position Id of the player.  I dont see a similar property to that on the combo box control, but I do see a property named SelectedValuePath that might be it, so I set it to Id and run the app again: Hey, all right!  No red box around the positions combo box.  Unfortunately, selecting the RB does not update the dropdown to point to Runningback.  Hmmm.  Now what could it be?  Maybe the problem is that we are loading teams before we are loading positions, so when it binds position Id, all of the positions arent loaded yet.  I went to the code behind and switched things so position loads first and no dice.  Same result when I run.  Why?  WHY?  Ok, ok, calm down, take a deep breath.  Get something with caffeine or sugar (preferably both) and think rationally. Ok, gigantic chocolate chip cookie and a mountain dew chaser have never let me down in the past, so dont fail me now!  Ah ha!  of course!  I didnt even have to finish the mountain dew and I think Ive got it:  Data Context.  By default, when setting on the selected value binding for the dropdown, the data context was list_team.  I dont even know what the heck list_team is, we want it to be bound to our team players view source resource instead, like this: Running it now and selecting the various players: Done and done.  Everything read and bound, thank you caffeine and sugar!  Oh, and thank you Visual Studio 2010.  Lets wire up some of those buttons now There has got to be a better way to do this, but it works for now.  What the add player button does is add a new player object to the currently selected team.  Unfortunately, I couldnt get the new object to automatically show up in the players list (something about not using an observable collection gotta look into this) so I just save the change immediately and reload the screen.  Terrible, but it works: Lets go after something easier:  The save button.  By default, as we type in new text for the players name, it is showing up in the list box as updated.  Cool!  Why couldnt my add new player logic do that?  Anyway, the save button should be as simple as invoking MFL.IO.Save for the selected player, like this: MFL.IO.Save((MFL.Player)lbTeamPlayers.SelectedItem, true); Surprisingly, that worked on the first try.  Lets see if we get as lucky with the Delete player button: MFL.IO.Delete((MFL.Player)lbTeamPlayers.SelectedItem); Refresh(); Note the use of the Refresh method again I cant seem to figure out why updates to the underlying data source are immediately reflected, but adds and deletes are not.  That is a problem for another day, and again my hunch is that I should be binding to something more complex than IEnumerable (like observable collection). Now that an example of the basic CRUD methods are wired up, I want to quickly investigate the performance of this beast.  Im going to make a special button to add 30 teams, each with 50 players and 10 seasons worth of stats.  If my math is right, that will end up with 15000 rows of data, a pretty hefty amount for an XML file.  The save of all this new data took a little over a minute, but that is acceptable because we wouldnt typically be saving batches of 15k records, and the resulting XML file size is a little over a megabyte.  Not huge, but big enough to see some read performance numbers or so I thought.  It reads this file and renders the first team in under a second.  That is unbelievable, but we are lazy loading and the file really wasnt that big.  I will increase it to 50 teams with 100 players and 20 seasons each - 100,000 rows.  It took a year and a half to save all of that data, and resulted in an 8 megabyte file.  Seriously, if you are loading XML files this large, get a freaking database!  Despite this, it STILL takes under a second to load and render the first team, which is interesting mostly because I thought that it was loading that entire 8 MB XML file behind the scenes.  I have to say that I am quite impressed with the performance of the LINQ to XML approach, particularly since I took no efforts to optimize any of this code and was fairly new to the concept from the start.  There might be some merit to this little project after all Look out SQL Server and Oracle, use XML files instead!  Next up, I am going to completely pull the rug out from under the UI and change a number of entities in our model.  How well will the code be regenerated?  How much effort will be required to tie things back together in the UI?Did you know that DotNetSlackers also publishes .net articles written by top known .net Authors? We already have over 80 articles in several categories including Silverlight. Take a look: here.

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• Setting up and using Bing Translate API Service for Machine Translation

  - by Rick Strahl

  Last week I spent quite a bit of time trying to set up the Bing Translate API service. I can honestly say this was one of the most screwed up developer experiences I've had in a long while - specifically related to the byzantine sign up process that Microsoft has in place. Not only is it nearly impossible to find decent documentation on the required signup process, some of the links in the docs are just plain wrong, and some of the account pages you need to access the actual account information once signed up are not linked anywhere from the administration UI. To make things even harder is the fact that the APIs changed a while back, with a completely new authentication scheme that's described and not directly linked documentation topic also made for a very frustrating search experience. It's a bummer that this is the case too, because the actual API itself is easy to use and works very well - fast and reasonably accurate (as accurate as you can expect machine translation to be). But the sign up process is a pain in the ass doubtlessly leaving many people giving up in frustration. In this post I'll try to hit all the points needed to set up to use the Bing Translate API in one place since such a document seems to be missing from Microsoft. Hopefully the API folks at Microsoft will get their shit together and actually provide this sort of info on their site… Signing Up The first step required is to create a Windows Azure MarketPlace account. Go to: https://datamarket.azure.com/ Sign in with your Windows Live Id If you don't have an account you will be taken to a registration page which you have to fill out. Follow the links and complete the registration. Once you're signed in you can start adding services. Click on the Data Link on the main page Select Microsoft Translator from the list This adds the Microsoft Bing Translator to your services. Pricing The page shows the pricing matrix and the free service which provides 2 megabytes for translations a month for free. Prices go up steeply from there. Pricing is determined by actual bytes of the result translations used. Max translations are 1000 characters so at minimum this means you get around 2000 translations a month for free. However most translations are probable much less so you can expect larger number of translations to go through. For testing or low volume translations this should be just fine. Once signed up there are no further instructions and you're left in limbo on the MS site. Register your Application Once you've created the Data association with Translator the next step is registering your application. To do this you need to access your developer account. Go to https://datamarket.azure.com/developer/applications/register Provide a ClientId, which is effectively the unique string identifier for your application (not your customer id!) Provide your name The client secret was auto-created and this becomes your 'password' For the redirect url provide any https url: https://microsoft.com works Give this application a description of your choice so you can identify it in the list of apps Now, once you've registered your application, keep track of the ClientId and ClientSecret - those are the two keys you need to authenticate before you can call the Translate API. Oddly the applications page is hidden from the Azure Portal UI. I couldn't find a direct link from anywhere on the site back to this page where I can examine my developer application keys. To find them you can go to: https://datamarket.azure.com/developer/applications You can come back here to look at your registered applications and pick up the ClientID and ClientSecret. Fun eh? But we're now ready to actually call the API and do some translating. Using the Bing Translate API The good news is that after this signup hell, using the API is pretty straightforward. To use the translation API you'll need to actually use two services: You need to call an authentication API service first, before you can call the actual translator API. These two APIs live on different domains, and the authentication API returns JSON data while the translator service returns XML. So much for consistency. Authentication The first step is authentication. The service uses oAuth authentication with a  bearer token that has to be passed to the translator API. The authentication call retrieves the oAuth token that you can then use with the translate API call. The bearer token has a short 10 minute life time, so while you can cache it for successive calls, the token can't be cached for long periods. This means for Web backend requests you typically will have to authenticate each time unless you build a more elaborate caching scheme that takes the timeout into account (perhaps using the ASP.NET Cache object). For low volume operations you can probably get away with simply calling the auth API for every translation you do. To call the Authentication API use code like this:/// /// Retrieves an oAuth authentication token to be used on the translate /// API request. The result string needs to be passed as a bearer token /// to the translate API. /// /// You can find client ID and Secret (or register a new one) at: /// https://datamarket.azure.com/developer/applications/ /// /// The client ID of your application /// The client secret or password /// public string GetBingAuthToken(string clientId = null, string clientSecret = null) { string authBaseUrl = https://datamarket.accesscontrol.windows.net/v2/OAuth2-13; if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(clientId) || string.IsNullOrEmpty(clientSecret)) { ErrorMessage = Resources.Resources.Client_Id_and_Client_Secret_must_be_provided; return null; } var postData = string.Format("grant_type=client_credentials&client_id={0}" + "&client_secret={1}" + "&scope=http://api.microsofttranslator.com", HttpUtility.UrlEncode(clientId), HttpUtility.UrlEncode(clientSecret)); // POST Auth data to the oauth API string res, token; try { var web = new WebClient(); web.Encoding = Encoding.UTF8; res = web.UploadString(authBaseUrl, postData); } catch (Exception ex) { ErrorMessage = ex.GetBaseException().Message; return null; } var ser = new JavaScriptSerializer(); var auth = ser.Deserialize<BingAuth>(res); if (auth == null) return null; token = auth.access_token; return token; } private class BingAuth { public string token_type { get; set; } public string access_token { get; set; } } This code basically takes the client id and secret and posts it at the oAuth endpoint which returns a JSON string. Here I use the JavaScript serializer to deserialize the JSON into a custom object I created just for deserialization. You can also use JSON.NET and dynamic deserialization if you are already using JSON.NET in your app in which case you don't need the extra type. In my library that houses this component I don't, so I just rely on the built in serializer. The auth method returns a long base64 encoded string which can be used as a bearer token in the translate API call. Translation Once you have the authentication token you can use it to pass to the translate API. The auth token is passed as an Authorization header and the value is prefixed with a 'Bearer ' prefix for the string. Here's what the simple Translate API call looks like:/// /// Uses the Bing API service to perform translation /// Bing can translate up to 1000 characters. /// /// Requires that you provide a CLientId and ClientSecret /// or set the configuration values for these two. /// /// More info on setup: /// http://www.west-wind.com/weblog/ /// /// Text to translate /// Two letter culture name /// Two letter culture name /// Pass an access token retrieved with GetBingAuthToken. /// If not passed the default keys from .config file are used if any /// public string TranslateBing(string text, string fromCulture, string toCulture, string accessToken = null) { string serviceUrl = "http://api.microsofttranslator.com/V2/Http.svc/Translate"; if (accessToken == null) { accessToken = GetBingAuthToken(); if (accessToken == null) return null; } string res; try { var web = new WebClient(); web.Headers.Add("Authorization", "Bearer " + accessToken); string ct = "text/plain"; string postData = string.Format("?text={0}&from={1}&to={2}&contentType={3}", HttpUtility.UrlEncode(text), fromCulture, toCulture, HttpUtility.UrlEncode(ct)); web.Encoding = Encoding.UTF8; res = web.DownloadString(serviceUrl + postData); } catch (Exception e) { ErrorMessage = e.GetBaseException().Message; return null; } // result is a single XML Element fragment var doc = new XmlDocument(); doc.LoadXml(res); return doc.DocumentElement.InnerText; } The first of this code deals with ensuring the auth token exists. You can either pass the token into the method manually or let the method automatically retrieve the auth code on its own. In my case I'm using this inside of a Web application and in that situation I simply need to re-authenticate every time as there's no convenient way to manage the lifetime of the auth cookie. The auth token is added as an Authorization HTTP header prefixed with 'Bearer ' and attached to the request. The text to translate, the from and to language codes and a result format are passed on the query string of this HTTP GET request against the Translate API. The translate API returns an XML string which contains a single element with the translated string. Using the Wrapper Methods It should be pretty obvious how to use these two methods but here are a couple of test methods that demonstrate the two usage scenarios:[TestMethod] public void TranslateBingWithAuthTest() { var translate = new TranslationServices(); string clientId = DbResourceConfiguration.Current.BingClientId; string clientSecret = DbResourceConfiguration.Current.BingClientSecret; string auth = translate.GetBingAuthToken(clientId, clientSecret); Assert.IsNotNull(auth); string text = translate.TranslateBing("Hello World we're back home!", "en", "de",auth); Assert.IsNotNull(text, translate.ErrorMessage); Console.WriteLine(text); } [TestMethod] public void TranslateBingIntegratedTest() { var translate = new TranslationServices(); string text = translate.TranslateBing("Hello World we're back home!","en","de"); Assert.IsNotNull(text, translate.ErrorMessage); Console.WriteLine(text); } Other API Methods The Translate API has a number of methods available and this one is the simplest one but probably also the most common one that translates a single string. You can find additional methods for this API here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff512419.aspx Soap and AJAX APIs are also available and documented on MSDN: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd576287.aspx These links will be your starting points for calling other methods in this API. Dual Interface I've talked about my database driven localization provider here in the past, and it's for this tool that I added the Bing localization support. Basically I have a localization administration form that allows me to translate individual strings right out of the UI, using both Google and Bing APIs: As you can see in this example, the results from Google and Bing can vary quite a bit - in this case Google is stumped while Bing actually generated a valid translation. At other times it's the other way around - it's pretty useful to see multiple translations at the same time. Here I can choose from one of the values and driectly embed them into the translated text field. Lost in Translation There you have it. As I mentioned using the API once you have all the bureaucratic crap out of the way calling the APIs is fairly straight forward and reasonably fast, even if you have to call the Auth API for every call. Hopefully this post will help out a few of you trying to navigate the Microsoft bureaucracy, at least until next time Microsoft upends everything and introduces new ways to sign up again. Until then - happy translating… Related Posts Translation method Source on Github Translating with Google Translate without Google API Keys Creating a data-driven ASP.NET Resource Provider© Rick Strahl, West Wind Technologies, 2005-2013Posted in Localization  ASP.NET  .NET   Tweet !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs"); (function() { var po = document.createElement('script'); po.type = 'text/javascript'; po.async = true; po.src = 'https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(po, s); })();

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• You should NOT be writing jQuery in SharePoint if&hellip;

  - by Mark Rackley

  Yes… another one of these posts. What can I say? I’m a pot stirrer.. a rabble rouser *rabble rabble* jQuery in SharePoint seems to be a fairly polarizing issue with one side thinking it is the most awesome thing since Princess Leia as the slave girl in Return of the Jedi and the other half thinking it is the worst idea since Mannequin 2: On the Move. The correct answer is OF COURSE “it depends”. But what are those deciding factors that make jQuery an awesome fit or leave a bad taste in your mouth? Let’s see if I can drive the discussion here with some polarizing comments of my own… I know some of you are getting ready to leave your comments even now before reading the rest of the blog, which is great! Iron sharpens iron… These discussions hopefully open us up to understanding the entire process better and think about things in a different way. You should not be writing jQuery in SharePoint if you are not a developer… Let’s start off with my most polarizing and rant filled portion of the blog post. If you don’t know what you are doing or you don’t have a background that helps you understand the implications of what you are writing then you should not be writing jQuery in SharePoint! I truly believe that one of the biggest reasons for the jQuery haters is because of all the bad jQuery out there. If you don’t know what you are doing you can do some NASTY things! One of the best stories I’ve heard about this is from my good friend John Ferringer (@ferringer). John tells this story during our Mythbusters session we do together. One of his clients was undergoing a Denial of Service attack and they couldn’t figure out what was going on! After much searching they found that some genius jQuery developer wrote some code for an image rotator, but did not take into account what happens when there are no images to load! The code just kept hitting the servers over and over and over again which prevented anything else from getting done! Now, I’m NOT saying that I have not done the same sort of thing in the past or am immune from such mistakes. My point is that if you don’t know what you are doing, there are very REAL consequences that can have a major impact on your organization AND they will be hard to track down.  Think how happy your boss will be after you copy and pasted some jQuery from a blog without understanding what it does, it brings down the farm, AND it takes them 3 days to track it back to you.  :/ Good times will not be had. Like it or not JavaScript/jQuery is a programming language. While you .NET people sit on your high horses because your code is compiled and “runs faster” (also debatable), the rest of us will be actually getting work done and delivering solutions while you are trying to figure out why your widget won’t deploy. I can pick at that scab because I write .NET code too and speak from experience. I can do both, and do both well. So, I am not speaking from ignorance here. In JavaScript/jQuery you have variables, loops, conditionals, functions, arrays, events, and built in methods. If you are not a developer you just aren’t going to take advantage of all of that and use it correctly. Ahhh.. but there is hope! There is a lot of jQuery resources out there to help you learn and learn well! There are many experts on the subject that will gladly tell you when you are smoking crack. I just this minute saw a tweet from @cquick with a link to: “jQuery Fundamentals”. I just glanced through it and this may be a great primer for you aspiring jQuery devs. Take advantage of all the resources and become a developer! Hey, it will look awesome on your resume right? You should not be writing jQuery in SharePoint if it depends too much on client resources for a good user experience I’ve said it once and I’ll say it over and over until you understand. jQuery is executed on the client’s computer. Got it? If you are looping through hundreds of rows of data, searching through an enormous DOM, or performing many calculations it is going to take some time! AND if your user happens to be sitting on some old PC somewhere that they picked up at a garage sale their experience will be that much worse! If you can’t give the user a good experience they will not use the site. So, if jQuery is causing the user to have a bad experience, don’t use it. I sometimes go as far to say that you should NOT go to jQuery as a first option for external facing web sites because you have ZERO control over what the end user’s computer will be. You just can’t guarantee an awesome user experience all of the time. Ahhh… but you have no choice? (where have I heard that before?). Well… if you really have no choice, here are some tips to help improve the experience: Avoid screen scraping This is not 1999 and SharePoint is not an old green screen from a mainframe… so why are you treating it like it is? Screen scraping is time consuming and client intensive. Take advantage of tools like SPServices to do your data retrieval when possible. Fine tune your DOM searches A lot of time can be eaten up just searching the DOM and ignoring table rows that you don’t need. Write better jQuery to only loop through tables rows that you need, or only access specific elements you need. Take advantage of Element ID’s to return the one element you are looking for instead of looping through all the DOM over and over again. Write better jQuery Remember this is development. Think about how you can write cleaner, faster jQuery. This directly relates to the previous point of improving your DOM searches, but also when using arrays, variables and loops. Do you REALLY need to loop through that array 3 times? How can you knock it down to 2 times or even 1? When you have lots of calculations and data that you are manipulating every operation adds up. Think about how you can streamline it. Back in the old days before RAM was abundant, Cores were plentiful and dinosaurs roamed the earth, us developers had to take performance into account in everything we did. It’s a lost art that really needs to be used here. You should not be writing jQuery in SharePoint if you are sending a lot of data over the wire… Developer:  “Awesome… you can easily call SharePoint’s web services to retrieve and write data using SPServices!” Administrator: “Crap! you can easily call SharePoint’s web services to retrieve and write data using SPServices!” SPServices may indeed be the best thing that happened to SharePoint since the invention of SharePoint Saturdays by Godfather Lotter… BUT you HAVE to use it wisely! (I REFUSE to make the Spiderman reference). If you do not know what you are doing your code will bring back EVERY field and EVERY row from a list and push that over the internet with all that lovely XML wrapped around it. That can be a HUGE amount of data and will GREATLY impact performance! Calling several web service methods at the same time can cause the same problem and can negatively impact your SharePoint servers. These problems, thankfully, are not difficult to rectify if you are careful: Limit list data retrieved Use CAML to reduce the number of rows returned and limit the fields returned using ViewFields.  You should definitely be doing this regardless. If you aren’t I hope your admin thumps you upside the head. Batch large list updates You may or may not have noticed that if you try to do large updates (hundreds of rows) that the performance is either completely abysmal or it fails over half the time. You can greatly improve performance and avoid timeouts by breaking up your updates into several smaller updates. I don’t know if there is a magic number for best performance, it really depends on how much data you are sending back more than the number of rows. However, I have found that 200 rows generally works well.  Play around and find the right number for your situation. Delay Web Service calls when possible One of the cool things about jQuery and SPServices is that you can delay queries to the server until they are actually needed instead of doing them all at once. This can lead to performance improvements over DataViewWebParts and even .NET code in the right situations. So, don’t load the data until it’s needed. In some instances you may not need to retrieve the data at all, so why retrieve it ALL the time? You should not be writing jQuery in SharePoint if there is a better solution… jQuery is NOT the silver bullet in SharePoint, it is not the answer to every question, it is just another tool in the developers toolkit. I urge all developers to know what options exist out there and choose the right one! Sometimes it will be jQuery, sometimes it will be .NET,  sometimes it will be XSL, and sometimes it will be some other choice… So, when is there a better solution to jQuery? When you can’t get away from performance problems Sometimes jQuery will just give you horrible performance regardless of what you do because of unavoidable obstacles. In these situations you are going to have to figure out an alternative. Can I do it with a DVWP or do I have to crack open Visual Studio? When you need to do something that jQuery can’t do There are lots of things you can’t do in jQuery like elevate privileges, event handlers, workflows, or interact with back end systems that have no web service interface. It just can’t do everything. When it can be done faster and more efficiently another way Why are you spending time to write jQuery to do a DataViewWebPart that would take 5 minutes? Or why are you trying to implement complicated logic that would be simple to do in .NET? If your answer is that you don’t have the option, okay. BUT if you do have the option don’t reinvent the wheel! Take advantage of the other tools. The answer is not always jQuery… sorry… the kool-aid tastes good, but sweet tea is pretty awesome too. You should not be using jQuery in SharePoint if you are a moron… Let’s finish up the blog on a high note… Yes.. it’s true, I sometimes type things just to get a reaction… guess this section title might be a good example, but it feels good sometimes just to type the words that a lot of us think… So.. don’t be that guy! Another good buddy of mine that works for Microsoft told me. “I loved jQuery in SharePoint…. until I had to support it.”. He went on to explain that some user was making several web service calls on a page using jQuery and then was calling Microsoft and COMPLAINING because the page took so long to load… DUH! What do you expect to happen when you are pushing that much data over the wire and are making that many web service calls at once!! It’s one thing to write that kind of code and accept it’s just going to take a while, it’s COMPLETELY another issue to do that and then complain when it’s not lightning fast!  Someone’s gene pool needs some chlorine. So, I think this is a nice summary of the blog… DON’T be that guy… don’t be a moron. How can you stop yourself from being a moron? Ah.. glad you asked, here are some tips: Think Is jQuery the right solution to my problem? Is there a better approach? What are the implications and pitfalls of using jQuery in this situation? Search What are others doing? Does someone have a better solution? Is there a third party library that does the same thing I need? Plan Write good jQuery. Limit calculations and data sent over the wire and don’t reinvent the wheel when possible. Test Okay, it works well on your machine. Try it on others ESPECIALLY if this is for an external site. Test with empty data. Test with hundreds of rows of data. Test as many scenarios as possible. Monitor those server resources to see the impact there as well. Ask the experts As smart as you are, there are people smarter than you. Even the experts talk to each other to make sure they aren't doing something stupid. And for the MOST part they are pretty nice guys. Marc Anderson and Christophe Humbert are two guys who regularly keep me in line. Make sure you aren’t doing something stupid. Repeat So, when you think you have the best solution possible, repeat the steps above just to be safe.  Conclusion jQuery is an awesome tool and has come in handy on many occasions. I’m even teaching a 1/2 day SharePoint & jQuery workshop at the upcoming SPTechCon in Boston if you want to berate me in person. However, it’s only as awesome as the developer behind the keyboard. It IS development and has its pitfalls. Knowledge and experience are invaluable to giving the user the best experience possible.  Let’s face it, in the end, no matter our opinions, prejudices, or ego providing our clients, customers, and users with the best solution possible is what counts. Period… end of sentence…

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• Microsoft Declares the Future of ASP.NET is Web API

  - by sbwalker

  Sitting on a plane on my way home from Tech Ed 2012 in Orlando, I thought it would be a good time to jot down some key takeaways from this year’s conference. Some of these items I have known since the Microsoft MVP Summit which occurred in Redmond in late February ( but due to NDA restrictions I could not share them with the developer community at large ) and some of them are a result of insightful conversations with a wide variety of industry insiders and Microsoft employees at the conference. First, let’s travel back in time 4 years to the Microsoft MVP Summit in 2008. Microsoft was facing some heat from market newcomer Ruby on Rails and responded with a new web development framework of its own, ASP.NET MVC. At the Summit they estimated that MVC would only be applicable for ~10% of all new web development projects. Based on that prediction I questioned why they were investing such considerable resources for such a relative edge case, but my guess is that they felt it was an important edge case at the time as some of the more vocal .NET evangelists as well as some very high profile start-ups ( ie. Twitter ) had publicly announced their intent to use Rails. Microsoft made a lot of noise about MVC. In fact, they focused so much of their messaging and marketing hype around MVC that it appeared that WebForms was essentially dead. Yes, it may have been true that Microsoft continued to invest in WebForms, but from an outside perspective it really appeared that MVC was the only framework getting any real attention. As a result, MVC started to gain market share. An inside source at Microsoft told me that MVC usage has grown at a rate of about 5% per year and now sits at ~30%. Essentially by focusing so much marketing effort on MVC, Microsoft actually created a larger market demand for it.  This is because in the Microsoft ecosystem there is somewhat of a bandwagon mentality amongst developers. If Microsoft spends a lot of time talking about a specific technology, developers get the perception that it must be really important. So rather than choosing the right tool for the job, they often choose the tool with the most marketing hype and then try to sell it to the customer. In 2010, I blogged about the fact that MVC did not make any business sense for the DotNetNuke platform. This was because our ecosystem relied on third party extensions which were dependent on the WebForms model. If we migrated the core to MVC it would mean that all of the third party extensions would no longer be compatible, which would be an irresponsible business decision for us to make at the expense of our users and customers. However, this did not stop the debate from continuing to occur in our ecosystem. Clearly some developers had drunk Microsoft’s Kool-Aid about MVC and were of the mindset, to paraphrase an old Scottish saying, “If its not MVC, it’s crap”. Now, this is a rather ignorant position to take as most of the benefits of MVC can be achieved in WebForms with solid architecture and responsible coding practices. Clean separation of concerns, unit testing, and direct control over page output are all possible in the WebForms model – it just requires diligence and discipline. So over the past few years some horror stories have begun to bubble to the surface of software development projects focused on ground-up rewrites of web applications for the sole purpose of migrating from WebForms to MVC. These large scale rewrites were typically initiated by engineering teams with only a single argument driving the business decision, that Microsoft was promoting MVC as “the future”. These ill-fated rewrites offered no benefit to end users or customers and in fact resulted in a less stable, less scalable and more complicated systems – basically taking one step forward and two full steps back. A case in point is the announcement earlier this week that a popular open source .NET CMS provider has decided to pull the plug on their new MVC product which has been under active development for more than 18 months and revert back to WebForms. The availability of multiple server-side development models has deeply fragmented the Microsoft developer community. Some folks like to compare it to the age-old VB vs. C# language debate. However, the VB vs. C# language debate was ultimately more of a religious war because at least the two dominant programming languages were compatible with one another and could be used interchangeably. The issue with WebForms vs. MVC is much more challenging. This is because the messaging from Microsoft has positioned the two solutions as being incompatible with one another and as a result web developers feel like they are forced to choose one path or another. Yes, it is true that it has always been technically possible to use WebForms and MVC in the same project, but the tooling support has always made this feel “dirty”. The fragmentation has also made it difficult to attract newcomers as the perceived barrier to entry for learning ASP.NET has become higher. As a result many new software developers entering the market are gravitating to environments where the development model seems more simple and intuitive ( ie. PHP or Ruby ). At the same time that the Web Platform team was busy promoting ASP.NET MVC, the Microsoft Office team has been promoting Sharepoint as a platform for building internal enterprise web applications. Sharepoint has great penetration in the enterprise and over time has been enhanced with improved extensibility capabilities for software developers. But, like many other mature enterprise ASP.NET web applications, it is built on the WebForms development model. Similar to DotNetNuke, Sharepoint leverages a rich third party ecosystem for both generic web controls and more specialized WebParts – both of which rely on WebForms. So basically this resulted in a situation where the Web Platform group had headed off in one direction and the Office team had gone in another direction, and the end customer was stuck in the middle trying to figure out what to do with their existing investments in Microsoft technology. It really emphasized the perception that the left hand was not speaking to the right hand, as strategically speaking there did not seem to be any high level plan from Microsoft to ensure consistency and continuity across the different product lines. With the introduction of ASP.NET MVC, it also made some of the third party control vendors scratch their heads, and wonder what the heck Microsoft was thinking. The original value proposition of ASP.NET over Classic ASP was the ability for web developers to emulate the highly productive desktop development model by using abstract components for creating rich, interactive web interfaces. Web control vendors like Telerik, Infragistics, DevExpress, and ComponentArt had all built sizable businesses offering powerful user interface components to WebForms developers. And even after MVC was introduced these vendors continued to improve their products, offering greater productivity and a superior user experience via AJAX to what was possible in MVC. And since many developers were comfortable and satisfied with these third party solutions, the demand remained strong and the third party web control market continued to prosper despite the availability of MVC. While all of this was going on in the Microsoft ecosystem, there has also been a fundamental shift in the general software development industry. Driven by the explosion of Internet-enabled devices, the focus has now centered on service-oriented architecture (SOA). Service-oriented architecture is all about defining a public API for your product that any client can consume; whether it’s a native application running on a smart phone or tablet, a web browser taking advantage of HTML5 and Javascript, or a rich desktop application running on a PC. REST-based services which utilize the less verbose characteristics of JSON as a transport mechanism, have become the preferred approach over older, more bloated SOAP-based techniques. SOA also has the benefit of producing a cross-platform API, as every major technology stack is able to interact with standard REST-based web services. And for web applications, more and more developers are turning to robust Javascript libraries like JQuery and Knockout for browser-based client-side development techniques for calling web services and rendering content to end users. In fact, traditional server-side page rendering has largely fallen out of favor, resulting in decreased demand for server-side frameworks like Ruby on Rails, WebForms, and (gasp) MVC. In response to these new industry trends, Microsoft did what it always does – it immediately poured some resources into developing a solution which will ensure they remain relevant and competitive in the web space. This work culminated in a new framework which was branded as Web API. It is convention-based and designed to embrace native HTTP standards without copious layers of abstraction. This framework is designed to be the ultimate replacement for both the REST aspects of WCF and ASP.NET MVC Web Services. And since it was developed out of band with a dependency only on ASP.NET 4.0, it means that it can be used immediately in a variety of production scenarios. So at Tech Ed 2012 it was made abundantly clear in numerous sessions that Microsoft views Web API as the “Future of ASP.NET”. In fact, one Microsoft PM even went as far as to say that if we look 3-4 years into the future, that all ASP.NET web applications will be developed using the Web API approach. This is a fairly bold prediction and clearly telegraphs where Microsoft plans to allocate its resources going forward. Currently Web API is being delivered as part of the MVC4 package, but this is only temporary for the sake of convenience. It also sounds like there are still internal discussions going on in terms of how to brand the various aspects of ASP.NET going forward – perhaps the moniker of “ASP.NET Web Stack” coined a couple years ago by Scott Hanselman and utilized as part of the open source release of ASP.NET bits on Codeplex a few months back will eventually stick. Web API is being positioned as the unification of ASP.NET – the glue that is able to pull this fragmented mess back together again. The  “One ASP.NET” strategy will promote the use of all frameworks - WebForms, MVC, and Web API, even within the same web project. Basically the message is utilize the appropriate aspects of each framework to solve your business problems. Instead of navigating developers to a fork in the road, the plan is to educate them that “hybrid” applications are a great strategy for delivering solutions to customers. In addition, the service-oriented approach coupled with client-side development promoted by Web API can effectively be used in both WebForms and MVC applications. So this means it is also relevant to application platforms like DotNetNuke and Sharepoint, which means that it starts to create a unified development strategy across all ASP.NET product lines once again. And so what about MVC? There have actually been rumors floated that MVC has reached a stage of maturity where, similar to WebForms, it will be treated more as a maintenance product line going forward ( MVC4 may in fact be the last significant iteration of this framework ). This may sound alarming to some folks who have recently adopted MVC but it really shouldn’t, as both WebForms and MVC will continue to play a vital role in delivering solutions to customers. They will just not be the primary area where Microsoft is spending the majority of its R&D resources. That distinction will obviously go to Web API. And when the question comes up of why not enhance MVC to make it work with Web API, you must take a step back and look at this from the higher level to see that it really makes no sense. MVC is a server-side page compositing framework; whereas, Web API promotes client-side page compositing with a heavy focus on web services. In order to make MVC work well with Web API, would require a complete rewrite of MVC and at the end of the day, there would be no upgrade path for existing MVC applications. So it really does not make much business sense. So what does this have to do with DotNetNuke? Well, around 8-12 months ago we recognized the software industry trends towards web services and client-side development. We decided to utilize a “hybrid” model which would provide compatibility for existing modules while at the same time provide a bridge for developers who wanted to utilize more modern web techniques. Customers who like the productivity and familiarity of WebForms can continue to build custom modules using the traditional approach. However, in DotNetNuke 6.2 we also introduced a new Service Framework which is actually built on top of MVC2 ( we chose to leverage MVC because it had the most intuitive, light-weight REST implementation in the .NET stack ). The Services Framework allowed us to build some rich interactive features in DotNetNuke 6.2, including the Messaging and Notification Center and Activity Feed. But based on where we know Microsoft is heading, it makes sense for the next major version of DotNetNuke ( which is expected to be released in Q4 2012 ) to migrate from MVC2 to Web API. This will likely result in some breaking changes in the Services Framework but we feel it is the best approach for ensuring the platform remains highly modern and relevant. The fact that our development strategy is perfectly aligned with the “One ASP.NET” strategy from Microsoft means that our customers and developer community can be confident in their current and future investments in the DotNetNuke platform.

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• Stop Spinning Your Wheels&hellip; Sage Advice for Aspiring Developers

  - by Mark Rackley

  So… lately I’ve been tasked with helping bring some non-developers over the hump and become full-fledged, all around, SharePoint developers. Well, only time will tell if I’m successful or a complete failure. Good thing about failures though, you know what NOT to do next time! Anyway, I’ve been writing some sort of code since I was about 10 years old; so I sometimes take for granted the effort some people have to go through to learn a new technology. I guess if I had to say I was an “expert” in one thing it would be learning (and getting “stuff” done) in new technologies. Maybe that’s why I’ve embraced SharePoint and the SharePoint community. SharePoint is the first technology I haven’t been able to master or get everything done without help from other people. I KNOW I’ll never know it all and I learn something new every day.  It keeps it interesting, it keeps me motivated, and keeps me involved. So, what some people may consider a downside of SharePoint, I definitely consider a plus. Crap.. I’m rambling. Where was I? Oh yeah… me trying to be helpful. Like I said, I am able to quickly and effectively pick up new languages, technology, etc. and put it to good use. Am I just brilliant? Well, my mom thinks so.. but maybe not. Maybe I’ve just been doing it for a long time…. 25 years in some form or fashion… wow I’m old… Anyway, what I lack in depth I make up for in breadth and being the “go-to” guy wherever I work when someone needs to “get stuff done”.  Let’s see if I can take some of that experience and put it to practical use to help new people get up to speed faster, learn things more effectively, and become that go-to guy. First off…  make sure you… Know The Basics I don’t have the time to teach new developers the basics, but you gotta know them. I’ve only been “taught” two languages.. Fortran 77 and C… everything else I’ve picked up from “doing”. I HAD to know the basics though, and all new developers need to understand the very basics of development.  97.23% of all languages will have the following: Variables Functions Arrays If statements For loops / While loops If you think about it, most development is “if this, do this… or while this, do this…”.  “This” may be some unique method to your language or something you develop, but the basics are the basics. YES there are MANY other development topics you need to understand, but you shouldn’t be scratching your head trying to figure out what a ”for loop” is… (Also learn about classes and hashtables as quickly as possible). Once you have the basics down it makes it much easier to… Learn By Doing This may just apply to me and my warped brain.  I don’t learn a new technology by reading or hearing someone speak about it. I learn by doing. It does me no good to try and learn all of the intricacies of a new language or technology inside-and-out before getting my hands dirty. Just show me how to do one thing… let me get that working… then show me how to do the next thing.. let me get that working… Now, let’s see what I can figure out on my own. Okay.. now it starts to make sense. I see how the language works, I can step through the code, and before you know it.. I’m productive in a new technology. Be careful here though…. make sure you… Don’t Reinvent The Wheel People have been writing code for what… 50+ years now? So, why are you trying to tackle ANYTHING without first Googling it with Bing to see what others have done first? When I was first learning C# (I had come from a Java background) I had to call a web service.  Sure! No problem! I’d done this many times in Java. So, I proceeded to write an HTTP Handler, called the Web Service and it worked like a charm!!!  Probably about 2.3 seconds after I got it working completely someone says to me “Why didn’t you just add a Web Reference?” Really? You can do that?  oops… I just wasted a lot of time. Before undertaking the development of any sort of utility method in a new language, make sure it’s not already handled for you… Okay… you are starting to write some code and are curious about the possibilities? Well… don’t just sit there… Try It And See What Happens This is actually one of my biggest pet peeves. “So… ‘x++’ works in C#, but does it also work in JavaScript?”   Really? Did you just ask me that? In the time it spent for you to type that email, press the send button, me receive the email, get around to reading it, and replying with “yes” you could have tested it 47 times and know the answer! Just TRY it! See what happens! You aren’t doing brain surgery. You aren’t going to kill anyone, and you BETTER not be developing in production. So, you are not going to crash any production systems!! Seriously! Get off your butt and just try it yourself. The extra added benefit is that it doesn’t work, the absolute best way to learn is to… Learn From Your Failures I don’t know about you… but if I screw up and something doesn’t work, I learn A LOT more debugging my problem than if everything magically worked. It’s okay that you aren’t perfect! Not everyone can be me? In the same vein… don’t ask someone else to debug your problem until you have made a valiant attempt to do so yourself. There’s nothing quite like stepping through code line by line to see what it’s REALLY doing… and you’ll never feel more stupid sometimes than when you realize WHY it’s not working.. but you realize... you learn... and you remember. There is nothing wrong with failure as long as you learn from it. As you start writing more and more and more code make sure that you ALWAYS… Develop for Production You will soon learn that the “prototype” you wrote last week to show as a “proof of concept” is going to go directly into production no matter how much you beg and plead and try to explain it’s not ready to go into production… it’s going to go straight there.. and it’s like herpes.. it doesn’t go away and there’s no fixing it once it’s in there.  So, why not write ALL your code like it will be put in production? It MIGHT take a little longer, but in the long run it will be easier to maintain, get help on, and you won’t be embarrassed that it’s sitting on a production server for everyone to use and see. So, now that you are getting comfortable and writing code for production it is important to to remember the… KISS Principle… Learn It… Love It… Keep It Simple Stupid Seriously.. don’t try to show how smart you are by writing the most complicated code in history. Break your problem up into discrete steps and write each step. If it turns out you have some redundancy, you can always go back and tweak your code later.  How bad is it when you write code that LOOKS cocky? I’ve seen it before… some of the most abstract and complicated classes when a class wasn’t even needed! Or the most elaborate unreadable code jammed into one really long line when it could have been written in three lines, performed just as well, and been SOOO much easier to maintain. Keep it clear and simple.. baby steps people. This will help you learn the technology, debug problems, AND it will help others help you find your problems if they don’t have to decipher the Dead Sea Scrolls just to figure out what you are trying to do…. Really.. don’t be that guy… try to curb your ego and… Keep an Open Mind No matter how smart you are… how fast you type… or how much you get paid, don’t let your ego get in the way. There is probably a better way to do everything you’ve ever done. Don’t become so cocky that you can’t think someone knows more than you. There’s a lot of brilliant, helpful people out there willing to show you tricks if you just give them a chance. A very super-awesome developer once told me “So what if you’ve been writing code for 10 years or more! Does your code look basically the same? Are you not growing as a developer?” Those 10 years become pretty meaningless if you just “know” that you are right and have not picked up new tips, tricks, methods, and patterns along the way. Learn from others and find out what’s new in development land (you know you don’t have to specifically use pointers anymore??). Along those same lines… If it’s not working, first assume you are doing something wrong. You have no idea how much it annoys people who are trying to help you when you first assume that the help they are trying to give you is wrong. Just MAYBE… you… the person learning is making some small mistake? Maybe you didn’t describe your problem correctly? Maybe you are using the wrong terminology? “I did exactly what you said and it didn’t work.”  Oh really? Are you SURE about that? “Your solution doesn’t work.”  Well… I’m pretty sure it works, I’ve used it 200 times… What are you doing differently? First try some humility and appreciation.. it will go much further, especially when it turns out YOU are the one that is wrong. When all else fails…. Try Professional Training Some people just don’t have the mindset to go and figure stuff out. It’s a gift and not everyone has it. If everyone could do it I wouldn’t have a job and there wouldn’t be professional training available.  So, if you’ve tried everything else and no light bulbs are coming on, contact the experts who specialize in training. Be careful though, there is bad training out there. Want to know the names of some good places? Just shoot me a message and I’ll let you know. I’m boycotting endorsing Andrew Connell anymore until I get that free course dangit!! So… that’s it.. that’s all I got right now. Maybe you thought all of this is common sense, maybe you think I’m smoking crack. If so, don’t just sit there, there’s a comments section for a reason. Finally, what about you? What tips do you have to help this aspiring to learn the dark arts??

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• HTML5 CSS3 layout not working

  - by John.Weland

  I have been asked by a local MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) School to help them develop a website. For the life of me I CANNOT get the layout to work correctly. When I get one section set where it should be another moves out of place! here is a pic of the layout: here The header should be a set height as should the footer the entire site at its widest point should be 1250px with the header/content area/footer and the like being 1240px the black in the picture is a scaling background to expand wider as larger resolution systems are viewing them. The full site should be a minimum-height of 100% but scale virtually as content in the target area deems necessary. My biggest issue currently is that my "sticky" footer doesn't stick once the content has stretched the content target area virtually. the Code is not pretty but here it is: HTML5 <!doctype html> <html> <head> <link rel="stylesheet" href="menu.css" type="text/css" media="screen"> <link rel="stylesheet" href="master.css" type="text/css" media="screen"> <meta charset="utf-8"> <title>Untitled Document</title> </head> <body bottommargin="0" leftmargin="0" rightmargin="0" topmargin="0"> <div id="wrap" class="wrap"><div id="logo" class="logo"><img src="images/comalogo.png" width="100" height="150"></div> <div id="header" class="header">College of Martial Arts</div> <div id="nav" class="nav"> <ul id="menu"><b> <li><a href="#">News</a></li> <li>·</li> <li><a href="#">About Us</a> <ul> <li><a href="#">The Instructors</a></li> <li><a href="#">Our Arts</a></li> </li> </ul> <li>·</li> <li><a href="#">Location</a></li> <li>·</li> <li><a href="#">Gallery</a></li> <li>·</li> <li><a href="#">MMA.tv</a></li> <li>·</li> <li><a href="#">Schedule</a></li> <li>·</li> <li><a href="#">Fight Gear</a></li></b> </div> <div id="social" class="social"> <a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Canyon-Lake-College-of-Martial-Arts/189432551104674"><img src="images/soc/facebook.png"></a> <a href="https://twitter.com/#!/CanyonLakeMMA"><img src="images/soc/twitter.png"></a> <a href="https://plus.google.com/108252414577423199314/"><img src="images/soc/google+.png"></a> <a href="http://youtube.com/user/clmmatv"><img src="images/soc/youtube.png"></a></div> <div id="mid" class="mid">test <br>test <br>test <br>test <br>test <br>test <br>test <br>test <br>test <br>test <br>test <br>test <br>test <br>test <br>test <br>test <br>test <br>test <br>test <br>test <br>test <br>test <br>test <br>test <br>test <br></div> <div id="footer" class="footer"> <div id="contact" style="left:0px;">tel: (830) 214-4591<br /> e: [email protected]<br /> add: 1273 FM 2673, Sattler, TX 78133<br /> </div> <div id="affiliates" style="right:0px;">Hwa Rang World Tang soo Do</div> <div id="copyright">Copyright © College of Martial Arts</div> </div> </body> </html> CSS3 -Dropdown Menu- @charset "utf-8"; /* CSS Document */ /* Main */ #menu { width: 100%; margin: 0; padding: 10px 0 0 0; list-style: none; background: #444; background: -moz-linear-gradient(#000, #333); background: -webkit-gradient(linear,left bottom,left top,color-stop(0, #444),color-stop(1, #000)); background: -webkit-linear-gradient(#000, #333); background: -o-linear-gradient(#000, #333); background: -ms-linear-gradient(#000, #333); background: linear-gradient(#000, #333); -moz-border-radius: 5px; border-radius: 5px; -moz-box-shadow: 0 2px 1px #9c9c9c; -webkit-box-shadow: 0 2px 1px #9c9c9c; box-shadow: 0 8px 8px #9c9c9c; /* outline:#000 solid thin; */ } #menu li { left:150px; float: left; padding: 0 0 10px 0; position:relative; color: #FC0; font-size:15px; font-family:'freshman' cursive; line-height:15px; } #menu a { float: left; height: 15px; line-height:15px; padding: 0 10px; color: #FC0; font-size:15px; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: 1 1px 0 #000; text-align:center; } #menu li:hover > a { color: #fafafa; } *html #menu li a:hover /* IE6 */ { color: #fafafa; } #menu li:hover > ul { display: block; } /* Sub-menu */ #menu ul { list-style: none; margin: 0; padding: 0; display: none; position: absolute; top: 25px; left: 0; z-index: 99999; background: #444; background: -moz-linear-gradient(#000, #333); background: -webkit-gradient(linear,left bottom,left top,color-stop(0, #111),color-stop(1, #444)); background: -webkit-linear-gradient(#000, #333); background: -o-linear-gradient(#000, #333); background: -ms-linear-gradient(#000, #333); background: linear-gradient(#000, #333); -moz-border-radius: 5px; border-radius: 5px; /* outline:#000 solid thin; */ } #menu ul li { left:0; -moz-box-shadow: none; -webkit-box-shadow: none; box-shadow: none; } #menu ul a { padding: 10px; height: auto; line-height: 1; display: block; white-space: nowrap; float: none; text-transform: none; } *html #menu ul a /* IE6 */ { height: 10px; width: 200px; } *:first-child+html #menu ul a /* IE7 */ { height: 10px; width: 200px; } /*#menu ul a:hover { background: #000; background: -moz-linear-gradient(#000, #333); background: -webkit-gradient(linear, left top, left bottom, from(#04acec), to(#0186ba)); background: -webkit-linear-gradient(#000, #333); background: -o-linear-gradient(#000, #333); background: -ms-linear-gradient(#000, #333); background: linear-gradient(#000, #333); }*/ /* Clear floated elements */ #menu:after { visibility: hidden; display: block; font-size: 0; content: " "; clear: both; height: 0; } * html #menu { zoom: 1; } /* IE6 */ *:first-child+html #menu { zoom: 1; } /* IE7 */ CSS3 -Master Style Sheet- @charset "utf-8"; /* CSS Document */ a:link {color:#FC0; text-decoration:none;} /* unvisited link */ a:visited {color:#FC0; text-decoration:none;} /* visited link */ a:hover {color:#FFF; text-decoration:none;} /* mouse over link */ a:active {color:#FC0; text-decoration:none;} /* selected link */ ul.a {list-style-type:none;} ul.b {list-style-type:inherit} html { } body { /*background-image:url(images/cagebg.jpg);*/ background-repeat:repeat; background-position:top; } div.wrap { margin: 0 auto; min-height: 100%; position: relative; width: 1250px; } div.logo{ top:25px; left:20px; position:absolute; float:top; height:150px; } /*Freshman FONT is on my computer needs to be uploaded to the webhost and rendered host side like a webfont*/ div.header{ background-color:#999; color:#FC0; margin-left:5px; height:80px; width:1240px; line-height:70px; font-family:'freshman' cursive; font-size:50px; text-shadow:8px 8px #9c9c9c; text-outline:1px 1px #000; text-align:center; background-color:#999; clear: both; } div.social{ height:50px; margin-left:5px; width:1240px; font-family:'freshman' cursive; font-size:50px; text-align:right; color:#000; background-color:#999; line-height:30px; box-sizing: border-box; ms-box-sizing: border-box; webkit-box-sizing: border-box; moz-box-sizing: border-box; padding-right:5px; } div.mid{ position:absolute; min-height:100%; margin-left:5px; width:1240px; font-family:'freshman' cursive; font-size:50px; text-align:center; color:#000; background-color:#999; } /*SIDE left and right should be 40px wide and a minimum height (100% the area from nav-footer) to fill between the NAV and the footer yet stretch as displayed content streatches the page longer (scrollable)*/ div #side.sright{ top:96px; right:0; position:absolute; float:right; height:100%; min-height:100%; width:40px; background-image:url(images/border.png); } /*Container should vary in height in acordance to content displayed*/ div #content.container{ } /*Footer should stick at ABSOLUTE BOTTOM of the page*/ div #footer{ font-family:'freshman' cursive; position:fixed; bottom:0; background-color:#000000; margin-left:5px; width:1240px; color:#FC0; clear: both; /*this clear property forces the .container to understand where the columns end and contain them*/ } /*HTML 5 support - Sets new HTML 5 tags to display:block so browsers know how to render the tags properly.*/ header, section, footer, aside, nav, article, figure { display: block; } Eventually once the layout is correct I have to use PHP to make calls for where data should be displayed from what database. If anyone can help me to fix this layout and clean up the crap code, I'd be much appreciated.. I've spent weeks trying to figure this out.

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• SSL confirmation dialog popup auto closes in IE8 when re-accessing a JNLP file

  - by haylem

  I'm having this very annoying problem to troubleshoot and have been going at it for way too many days now, so have a go at it. The Environment We have 2 app-servers, which can be located on either the same machine or 2 different machines, and use the same signing certificate, and host 2 different web-apps. Though let's say, for the sake of our study case here, that they are on the same physical machine. So, we have: https://company.com/webapp1/ https://company.com/webapp2/ webapp1 is GWT-based rich-client which contains on one of its screens a menu with an item that is used to invoke a Java WebStart Client located on webapp2. It does so by performing a simple window.open call via this GWT call: Window.open("https://company.com/webapp2/app.jnlp", "_blank", null); Expected Behavior User merrilly goes to webapp1 User navigates to menu entry to start the WebStart app and clicks on it browser fires off a separate window/dialog which, depending on the browser and its security settings, will: request confirmation to navigate to this secure site, directly download the file, and possibly auto-execute a javaws process if there's a file association, otherwise the user can simply click on the file and start the app (or go about doing whatever it takes here). If you close the app, close the dialog, and re-click the menu entry, the same thing should happen again. Actual Behavior On Anything but God-forsaken IE 8 (Though I admit there's also all the god-forsaken pre-IE8 stuff, but the Requirements Lords being merciful we have already recently managed to make them drop these suckers. That was close. Let's hold hands and say a prayer of gratitude.) Stuff just works. JNLP gets downloaded, app executes just fine, you can close the app and re-do all the steps and it will restart happily. People rejoice. Puppies are safe and play on green hills in the sunshine. Developers can go grab a coffee and move on to more meaningful and rewarding tasks, like checking out on SO questions. Chrome doesn't want to execute the JNLP, but who cares? Customers won't get RSI from clicking a file every other week. On God-forsaken IE8 On the first visit, the dialog opens and requests confirmation for the user to continue to webapp2, though it could be unsafe (here be dragons, I tell you). The JNLP downloads and auto-opens, the app start. Your breathing is steady and slow. You close the app, close that SSL confirmation dialog, and re-click the menu entry. The dialog opens and auto-closes. Nothing starts, the file wasn't downloaded to any known location and Fiddler just reports the connection was closed. If you close IE and reach that menu item to click it again, it is now back to working correctly. Until you try again during the same session, of course. Your heart-rate goes up, you get some more coffee to make matters worse, and start looking for plain tickets online and a cheap but heavy golf-club on an online auction site to go clubbing baby polar seals to avenge your bloodthirst, as the gates to the IE team in Redmond are probably more secured than an ice block, as one would assume they get death threats often. Plus, the IE9 and IE10 teams are already hard at work fxing the crap left by their predecessors, so maybe you don't want to be too hard on them, and you don't have money to waste on a PI to track down the former devs responsible for this mess. Added Details I have come across many problems with IE8 not downloading files over SSL when it uses a no-cache header. This was indeed one of our problems, which seems to be worked out now. It downloads files fine, webapp2 uses the following headers to serve the JNLP file: response.setHeader("Cache-Control", "private, must-revalidate"); // IE8 happy response.setHeader("Pragma", "private"); // IE8 happy response.setHeader("Expires", "0"); // IE8 happy response.setHeader("Access-Control-Allow-Origin", "*"); // allow to request via cross-origin AJAX response.setContentType("application/x-java-jnlp-file"); // please exec me As you might have inferred, we get some confirmation dialog because there's something odd with the SSL certificate. Unfortunately I have no control over that. Assuming that's only temporary and for development purposes as we usually don't get our hands on the production certs. So the SSL cert is expired and doesn't specify the server. And the confirmation dialog. Wouldn't be that bad if it weren't for IE, as other browsers don't care, just ask for confirmation, and execute as expected and consistantly. Please, pretty please, help me, or I might consider sacrificial killings as an option. And I think I just found a decently prized stainless steel golf-club, so I'm right on the edge of gore. Side Notes Might actually be related to IE8 window.open SSL Certificate issue. Though it doesn't explain why the dialog would auto-close (that really is beyong me...), it could help to not have the confirmation dialog and not need the dialog at all. For instance, I was thinking that just having a simple URL in that menu instead of have it entirely managed by GWT code to invoke a Window.open would solve the problem. But I don't have control on that menu, and also I'm very curious how this could be fixed otherwise and why the hell it happens in the first place...

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• Compat Wireless Drivers Centrino N-2230

  - by user2699451

  So I am using linux and am having trouble installing the Compat Wireless drivers Hardware: Intel Centrino N-2230 OS: Linux Mint 64bit (kernel 13.08-generic) I followed this link http://www.mathyvanhoef.com/2012/09/compat-wireless-injection-patch-for.html Output: apt-get install linux-headers-$(uname -r) Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done linux-headers-3.8.0-19-generic is already the newest version. 0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 19 not upgraded. charles-W55xEU compat-wireless-2010-10-16 # cd ~ charles-W55xEU ~ # dir adt-bundle-linux-x86_64-20130917.zip Desktop known_hosts_backup charles-W55xEU ~ # wget http://www.orbit-lab.org/kernel/compat-wireless-3-stable/v3.6/compat-wireless-3.6.2-1-snp.tar.bz2 --2013-10-29 10:28:23-- http://www.orbit-lab.org/kernel/compat-wireless-3-stable/v3.6/compat-wireless-3.6.2-1-snp.tar.bz2 Resolving www.orbit-lab.org (www.orbit-lab.org)... 128.6.192.131 Connecting to www.orbit-lab.org (www.orbit-lab.org)|128.6.192.131|:80... connected. HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK Length: 4443700 (4,2M) [application/x-bzip2] Saving to: ‘compat-wireless-3.6.2-1-snp.tar.bz2’ 100%[======================================>] 4 443 700 13,5KB/s in 11m 3s 2013-10-29 10:39:27 (6,55 KB/s) - ‘compat-wireless-3.6.2-1-snp.tar.bz2’ saved [4443700/4443700] charles-W55xEU ~ # tar -xf compat-wireless-3.6.2-1-snp.tar.bz2 charles-W55xEU ~ # cd compat-wireless-3.6-rc6-1 bash: cd: compat-wireless-3.6-rc6-1: No such file or directory charles-W55xEU ~ # dir adt-bundle-linux-x86_64-20130917.zip Desktop compat-wireless-3.6.2-1-snp known_hosts_backup compat-wireless-3.6.2-1-snp.tar.bz2 charles-W55xEU ~ # cd compat-wireless-3.6.2-1-snp/ charles-W55xEU compat-wireless-3.6.2-1-snp # dir code-metrics.txt defconfigs linux-next-pending pending-stable compat drivers MAINTAINERS README config.mk enable-older-kernels Makefile scripts COPYRIGHT include net udev crap linux-next-cherry-picks patches charles-W55xEU compat-wireless-3.6.2-1-snp # wget http://patches.aircrack-ng.org/mac80211.compat08082009.wl_frag+ack_v1.patch --2013-10-29 10:40:52-- http://patches.aircrack-ng.org/mac80211.compat08082009.wl_frag+ack_v1.patch Resolving patches.aircrack-ng.org (patches.aircrack-ng.org)... 213.186.33.2, 2001:41d0:1:1b00:213:186:33:2 Connecting to patches.aircrack-ng.org (patches.aircrack-ng.org)|213.186.33.2|:80... connected. HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK Length: 1049 (1,0K) [text/plain] Saving to: ‘mac80211.compat08082009.wl_frag+ack_v1.patch’ 100%[======================================>] 1 049 --.-K/s in 0s 2013-10-29 10:40:56 (180 MB/s) - ‘mac80211.compat08082009.wl_frag+ack_v1.patch’ saved [1049/1049] charles-W55xEU compat-wireless-3.6.2-1-snp # patch -p1 < mac80211.compat08082009.wl_frag+ack_v1.patch patching file net/mac80211/tx.c Hunk #1 succeeded at 792 (offset 115 lines). charles-W55xEU compat-wireless-3.6.2-1-snp # wget -Ocompatwireless_chan_qos_frag.patch http://pastie.textmate.org/pastes/4882675/download --2013-10-29 10:43:18-- http://pastie.textmate.org/pastes/4882675/download Resolving pastie.textmate.org (pastie.textmate.org)... 178.79.137.125 Connecting to pastie.textmate.org (pastie.textmate.org)|178.79.137.125|:80... connected. HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 301 Moved Permanently Location: http://pastie.org/pastes/4882675/download [following] --2013-10-29 10:43:20-- http://pastie.org/pastes/4882675/download Resolving pastie.org (pastie.org)... 96.126.119.119 Connecting to pastie.org (pastie.org)|96.126.119.119|:80... connected. HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK Length: 2036 (2,0K) [application/octet-stream] Saving to: ‘compatwireless_chan_qos_frag.patch’ 100%[======================================>] 2 036 --.-K/s in 0,001s 2013-10-29 10:43:21 (3,35 MB/s) - ‘compatwireless_chan_qos_frag.patch’ saved [2036/2036] charles-W55xEU compat-wireless-3.6.2-1-snp # patch -p1 < compatwireless_chan_qos_frag.patch patching file drivers/net/wireless/rtl818x/rtl8187/dev.c patching file net/mac80211/tx.c Hunk #1 succeeded at 1495 (offset 8 lines). patching file net/wireless/chan.c charles-W55xEU compat-wireless-3.6.2-1-snp # make ./scripts/gen-compat-autoconf.sh /root/compat-wireless-3.6.2-1-snp/.config /root/compat-wireless-3.6.2-1-snp/config.mk > include/linux/compat_autoconf.h make -C /lib/modules/3.8.0-19-generic/build M=/root/compat-wireless-3.6.2-1-snp modules make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-3.8.0-19-generic' CC [M] /root/compat-wireless-3.6.2-1-snp/compat/main.o LD [M] /root/compat-wireless-3.6.2-1-snp/compat/compat.o CC [M] /root/compat-wireless-3.6.2-1-snp/drivers/bcma/main.o In file included from /root/compat-wireless-3.6.2-1-snp/include/linux/bcma/bcma.h:8:0, from /root/compat-wireless-3.6.2-1-snp/drivers/bcma/bcma_private.h:8, from /root/compat-wireless-3.6.2-1-snp/drivers/bcma/main.c:8: /root/compat-wireless-3.6.2-1-snp/include/linux/bcma/bcma_driver_pci.h:217:23: error: expected ‘=’, ‘,’, ‘;’, ‘asm’ or ‘__attribute__’ before ‘bcma_core_pci_init’ In file included from /root/compat-wireless-3.6.2-1-snp/include/linux/bcma/bcma.h:10:0, from /root/compat-wireless-3.6.2-1-snp/drivers/bcma/bcma_private.h:8, from /root/compat-wireless-3.6.2-1-snp/drivers/bcma/main.c:8: /root/compat-wireless-3.6.2-1-snp/include/linux/bcma/bcma_driver_gmac_cmn.h:95:23: error: expected ‘=’, ‘,’, ‘;’, ‘asm’ or ‘__attribute__’ before ‘bcma_core_gmac_cmn_init’ In file included from /root/compat-wireless-3.6.2-1-snp/drivers/bcma/main.c:8:0: /root/compat-wireless-3.6.2-1-snp/drivers/bcma/bcma_private.h:25:15: error: expected ‘=’, ‘,’, ‘;’, ‘asm’ or ‘__attribute__’ before ‘bcma_bus_register’ /root/compat-wireless-3.6.2-1-snp/drivers/bcma/main.c:152:15: error: expected ‘=’, ‘,’, ‘;’, ‘asm’ or ‘__attribute__’ before ‘bcma_bus_register’ /root/compat-wireless-3.6.2-1-snp/drivers/bcma/main.c:17:21: warning: ‘bcma_bus_next_num’ defined but not used [-Wunused-variable] /root/compat-wireless-3.6.2-1-snp/drivers/bcma/main.c:93:12: warning: ‘bcma_register_cores’ defined but not used [-Wunused-function] make[3]: *** [/root/compat-wireless-3.6.2-1-snp/drivers/bcma/main.o] Error 1 make[2]: *** [/root/compat-wireless-3.6.2-1-snp/drivers/bcma] Error 2 make[1]: *** [_module_/root/compat-wireless-3.6.2-1-snp] Error 2 make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-3.8.0-19-generic' make: *** [modules] Error 2 charles-W55xEU compat-wireless-3.6.2-1-snp # make install Warning: You may or may not need to update your initframfs, you should if any of the modules installed are part of your initramfs. To add support for your distribution to do this automatically send a patch against ./scripts/update-initramfs. If your distribution does not require this send a patch against the '/usr/bin/lsb_release -i -s': LinuxMint tag for your distribution to avoid this warning. make -C /lib/modules/3.8.0-19-generic/build M=/root/compat-wireless-3.6.2-1-snp modules make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-3.8.0-19-generic' CC [M] /root/compat-wireless-3.6.2-1-snp/drivers/bcma/main.o In file included from /root/compat-wireless-3.6.2-1-snp/include/linux/bcma/bcma.h:8:0, from /root/compat-wireless-3.6.2-1-snp/drivers/bcma/bcma_private.h:8, from /root/compat-wireless-3.6.2-1-snp/drivers/bcma/main.c:8: /root/compat-wireless-3.6.2-1-snp/include/linux/bcma/bcma_driver_pci.h:217:23: error: expected ‘=’, ‘,’, ‘;’, ‘asm’ or ‘__attribute__’ before ‘bcma_core_pci_init’ In file included from /root/compat-wireless-3.6.2-1-snp/include/linux/bcma/bcma.h:10:0, from /root/compat-wireless-3.6.2-1-snp/drivers/bcma/bcma_private.h:8, from /root/compat-wireless-3.6.2-1-snp/drivers/bcma/main.c:8: /root/compat-wireless-3.6.2-1-snp/include/linux/bcma/bcma_driver_gmac_cmn.h:95:23: error: expected ‘=’, ‘,’, ‘;’, ‘asm’ or ‘__attribute__’ before ‘bcma_core_gmac_cmn_init’ In file included from /root/compat-wireless-3.6.2-1-snp/drivers/bcma/main.c:8:0: /root/compat-wireless-3.6.2-1-snp/drivers/bcma/bcma_private.h:25:15: error: expected ‘=’, ‘,’, ‘;’, ‘asm’ or ‘__attribute__’ before ‘bcma_bus_register’ /root/compat-wireless-3.6.2-1-snp/drivers/bcma/main.c:152:15: error: expected ‘=’, ‘,’, ‘;’, ‘asm’ or ‘__attribute__’ before ‘bcma_bus_register’ /root/compat-wireless-3.6.2-1-snp/drivers/bcma/main.c:17:21: warning: ‘bcma_bus_next_num’ defined but not used [-Wunused-variable] /root/compat-wireless-3.6.2-1-snp/drivers/bcma/main.c:93:12: warning: ‘bcma_register_cores’ defined but not used [-Wunused-function] make[3]: *** [/root/compat-wireless-3.6.2-1-snp/drivers/bcma/main.o] Error 1 make[2]: *** [/root/compat-wireless-3.6.2-1-snp/drivers/bcma] Error 2 make[1]: *** [_module_/root/compat-wireless-3.6.2-1-snp] Error 2 make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-3.8.0-19-generic' make: *** [modules] Error 2 charles-W55xEU compat-wireless-3.6.2-1-snp # It keeps giving errors, same with other sites, I get the same errors??? I am lost, help needed

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• ESX3.5 Cluster & MD3000i -- Both servers see iSCSI Targets, Only one server can use partition.

  - by GruffTech

  Alright. First and foremost, Warning. This is a bigger-then-normal question. I like to be thorough and try to eliminate all possible "easymode" answers, as well as give everyone a feel of what i've tried. I've included several images of our setup and the problem it is having.. TLDR Version: So I've followed the guides located here: ESX Deployment Guide V1 this is the guide Dell has sent me to setup two ESX3.5 servers mounting a Dell MD3000i. It doesn't work. Both servers can't use the same storage partition on the MD3000. Both servers see it, but only one server can actually use it. (that server being whatever server created the partition on the target.) Both ESX servers are members of the Host Group. Full Version I have 2 ESX3.5 Servers (10.0.7.102, also called EPI2, and 10.0.7.103, also called EPI3.) connected to a iSCSI SAN Device (Dell MD3000i). Both ESX servers can "scan" the SAN and see the LUNS. Part One: MD3000i Storage On the MD3000i, Both servers are in my host group. I have two partitions, VM1 and VM2, both 1.6TB (vmware doesn't like anything past 2tb.) And you can even see that the ESX servers are targetting the MD3000 just fine. Part Two: The ESX Servers Figure 1. So as you can see above, Both ESX Servers (10.0.7.102 and 10.0.7.103) are able to see and scan the MD3000i SAN. Figure 2. Above is the storage both servers see. I created the storage partition on EPI2 (102). I then Extended the partition to include the second LUN for a grand total of 3.27 TB of storage. When i "rescan" on 103 (the server not mounting the partition), I get the below log in log/messages. Mar 11 10:41:18 epi3 kernel: scsi1: remove-single-device 0 0 0 failed, device busy(4). being the only line that grabs my attentions. (EPI3 is the server name) Mar 11 10:41:04 epi3 vmkiscsid[5436]: Connected to Discovery Address 192.168.130.101 Mar 11 10:41:04 epi3 vmkiscsid[5437]: Connected to Discovery Address 192.168.130.102 Mar 11 10:41:04 epi3 vmkiscsid[5438]: Connected to Discovery Address 192.168.131.101 Mar 11 10:41:04 epi3 vmkiscsid[5439]: Connected to Discovery Address 192.168.131.102 Mar 11 10:41:17 epi3 kernel: scsi singledevice 2 0 0 0 Mar 11 10:41:17 epi3 kernel: Vendor: DELL Model: MD3000i Rev: 0735 Mar 11 10:41:17 epi3 kernel: Type: Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 05 Mar 11 10:41:17 epi3 kernel: VMWARE SCSI Id: Supported VPD pages for sdb : 0x0 0x80 0x83 0x85 0x86 0x87 0xc0 0xc1 0xc2 0xc3 0xc4 0xc8 0xc9 0xca 0xd0 Mar 11 10:41:17 epi3 kernel: VMWARE SCSI Id: Device id info for sdb: 0x1 0x3 0x0 0x10 0x60 0x1 0xe4 0xf0 0x0 0x1a 0x1a 0xa2 0x0 0x0 0x15 0xe2 0x4d 0x75 0xf6 0x99 0x53 0x98 0x0 0x54 0x69 0x71 0x6e 0x2e 0x31 0x39 0x38 0x34 0x2d 0x30 0x35 0x2e 0x63 0x6f 0x6d 0x2e 0x64 0x65 0x6c 0x6c 0x3a 0x70 0x6f 0x77 0x65 0x72 0x76 0x61 0x75 0x6c 0x74 0x2e 0x36 0x30 0x30 0x31 0x65 0x34 0x66 0x30 0x30 0x30 0x31 0x61 0x31 0x61 0x61 0x32 0x30 0x30 0x30 0x30 0x30 0x30 0x30 0x30 0x34 0x37 0x39 0x30 0x36 0x32 0x32 0x65 0x2c 0x74 0x2c 0x30 0x78 0x30 0x30 0x30 0x31 0x30 0x30 0x30 0x30 0x30 0x30 0x30 0x32 0x0 0x0 0x0 0x51 0x94 0x0 0x4 0x0 0x0 0x80 0x1 0x53 0xa8 0x0 0x44 0x69 0x71 0x6e 0x2e 0x31 0x39 0x38 0x34 0x2d 0x30 0x35 0x2e 0x63 0x6f 0x6d 0x2e 0x64 0x65 0x6c 0x6c 0x3a 0x70 0x6f 0x77 0x65 0x72 0x76 0x61 0x75 0x6c 0x74 0x2e 0x36 0x30 0x30 0x31 0x65 0x34 0x66 0x30 0x30 0x30 0x31 0x61 0x31 0x61 0x61 0x32 0x30 0x30 0x30 0x30 0x30 0x30 0x30 0x30 0x34 0x37 0x39 0x30 0x36 0x32 0x32 0x65 0x0 0x0 0x0 0x0 Mar 11 10:41:17 epi3 kernel: VMWARE SCSI Id: Id for sdb 0x60 0x01 0xe4 0xf0 0x00 0x1a 0x1a 0xa2 0x00 0x00 0x15 0xe2 0x4d 0x75 0xf6 0x99 0x4d 0x44 0x33 0x30 0x30 0x30 Mar 11 10:41:17 epi3 kernel: VMWARE: Unique Device attached as scsi disk sdb at scsi2, channel 0, id 0, lun 0 Mar 11 10:41:17 epi3 kernel: Attached scsi disk sdb at scsi2, channel 0, id 0, lun 0 Mar 11 10:41:17 epi3 kernel: scan_scsis starting finish Mar 11 10:41:17 epi3 kernel: SCSI device sdb: 3509329920 512-byte hdwr sectors (1797751 MB) Mar 11 10:41:17 epi3 kernel: sdb: sdb1 Mar 11 10:41:17 epi3 kernel: scan_scsis done with finish Mar 11 10:41:17 epi3 kernel: scsi singledevice 2 0 0 1 Mar 11 10:41:17 epi3 kernel: Vendor: DELL Model: MD3000i Rev: 0735 Mar 11 10:41:17 epi3 kernel: Type: Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 05 Mar 11 10:41:18 epi3 kernel: VMWARE SCSI Id: Supported VPD pages for sdc : 0x0 0x80 0x83 0x85 0x86 0x87 0xc0 0xc1 0xc2 0xc3 0xc4 0xc8 0xc9 0xca 0xd0 Mar 11 10:41:18 epi3 kernel: VMWARE SCSI Id: Device id info for sdc: 0x1 0x3 0x0 0x10 0x60 0x1 0xe4 0xf0 0x0 0x1a 0x1a 0x86 0x0 0x0 0xd 0xb7 0x4d 0x75 0xf2 0x77 0x53 0x98 0x0 0x54 0x69 0x71 0x6e 0x2e 0x31 0x39 0x38 0x34 0x2d 0x30 0x35 0x2e 0x63 0x6f 0x6d 0x2e 0x64 0x65 0x6c 0x6c 0x3a 0x70 0x6f 0x77 0x65 0x72 0x76 0x61 0x75 0x6c 0x74 0x2e 0x36 0x30 0x30 0x31 0x65 0x34 0x66 0x30 0x30 0x30 0x31 0x61 0x31 0x61 0x61 0x32 0x30 0x30 0x30 0x30 0x30 0x30 0x30 0x30 0x34 0x37 0x39 0x30 0x36 0x32 0x32 0x65 0x2c 0x74 0x2c 0x30 0x78 0x30 0x30 0x30 0x31 0x30 0x30 0x30 0x30 0x30 0x30 0x30 0x32 0x0 0x0 0x0 0x51 0x94 0x0 0x4 0x0 0x0 0x80 0x1 0x53 0xa8 0x0 0x44 0x69 0x71 0x6e 0x2e 0x31 0x39 0x38 0x34 0x2d 0x30 0x35 0x2e 0x63 0x6f 0x6d 0x2e 0x64 0x65 0x6c 0x6c 0x3a 0x70 0x6f 0x77 0x65 0x72 0x76 0x61 0x75 0x6c 0x74 0x2e 0x36 0x30 0x30 0x31 0x65 0x34 0x66 0x30 0x30 0x30 0x31 0x61 0x31 0x61 0x61 0x32 0x30 0x30 0x30 0x30 0x30 0x30 0x30 0x30 0x34 0x37 0x39 0x30 0x36 0x32 0x32 0x65 0x0 0x0 0x0 0x0 Mar 11 10:41:18 epi3 kernel: VMWARE SCSI Id: Id for sdc 0x60 0x01 0xe4 0xf0 0x00 0x1a 0x1a 0x86 0x00 0x00 0x0d 0xb7 0x4d 0x75 0xf2 0x77 0x4d 0x44 0x33 0x30 0x30 0x30 Mar 11 10:41:18 epi3 kernel: VMWARE: Unique Device attached as scsi disk sdc at scsi2, channel 0, id 0, lun 1 Mar 11 10:41:18 epi3 kernel: Attached scsi disk sdc at scsi2, channel 0, id 0, lun 1 Mar 11 10:41:18 epi3 kernel: scan_scsis starting finish Mar 11 10:41:18 epi3 kernel: SCSI device sdc: 3509329920 512-byte hdwr sectors (1797751 MB) Mar 11 10:41:18 epi3 kernel: sdc: sdc1 Mar 11 10:41:18 epi3 kernel: scan_scsis done with finish Mar 11 10:41:18 epi3 kernel: scsi1: remove-single-device 0 0 0 failed, device busy(4). Mar 11 10:41:18 epi3 kernel: scsi singledevice 1 0 0 0 Things I've Tried: Removing iSCSI targets from only 103, disabling iSCSI, rebooting, enabled iSCSI, re-adding targets, rescan. Same result. Removing partition on 102, Formatted partition on 103 instead. Same result, except flipped. 103 can use storage, 102 can not. Starting Over. Removing all iSCSI Targets on both ESX Boxes, disabling iSCSI, turning off the firewall for iSCSI, rebooting ESX. Then on the MD3000, Removed the Host Group, Removed the Host-to-Virtual Mappings, Restarted the SAN. Followed the Documentation again, same result. Both servers see the storage, but only one server can use it. Disabling and Re-enabling VMware DRS and HA. Same result. Flat-out turning off VMware DRS and HA, and doing the "start over" step to see if maybe that borked it. Same Result. I'm kinda loosing my mind here, Everything i read online says "just partition it and if the ESX boxes can see the targets, it just works".... well crap. Any ideas, any other things to try? Can anyone atleast point me in the right direction? I'm really tired of working from 1am til 4am (our maintenance hours)

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